Rubio: Trump still has options for Russia sanctions, patience not infinite

He said this at a UN Security Council meeting.

“The President has shown extraordinary patience in terms of not assessing additional sanctions in the hopes of having a breakthrough in this regard,” Rubio said, adding that the situation is now moving toward escalation with more strikes.

“And now we are also watching incursions into neighboring airspace by both drones and airplanes,” he noted, stressing that Trump’s patience is not unlimited.

According to the Secretary of State, the White House chief has everything needed to sell “defensive weaponry, and potentially offensive weaponry, so that Ukraine can defend itself from this assault by purchasing that weaponry.”

“He has before him the opportunity and the options of imposing additional economic costs on the Russian Federation, if necessary, in order to bring this to an end… But there will come a moment in which we will have to conclude that perhaps there is no interest in a peaceful resolution, and then the President has before him real options, which he intends to pursue, as he has made clear today in some of the messages he has put out,” Rubio said.

At the same time, the U.S. Secretary of State noted that the war in Ukraine would end at the negotiating table.

• After meeting with the Ukrainian leader in New York on September 23, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russia resembles a “paper tiger” and that Ukraine is capable of regaining its territory “in its original form” with EU support — and “even go further.”
• He also announced his readiness to impose tariffs on Russia if it does not agree to a deal to end the war against Ukraine. He further mentioned that European countries continue buying Russian oil and gas.