But two U.S. officials tell me the Rubio-Lavrov phone call yesterday revealed once again that Russia maintains its maximalist demands, among them this: Ukraine must give up parts of the Eastern Donbass region that Ukraine holds, even though Russia has failed to win it on the battlefield. Now, when we hear from Washington that — quote — "We must stop immediately" and that we must not discuss anything further, well, if we simply stop, that would mean forgetting about the root causes of the conflict, which the U.S. administration, with the arrival of Donald Trump, has clearly understood and voiced. The next step, of course, as we have talked about in this process, trying to get some kind of reconstruction and foreign forces into Gaza, U.S. officials tell me there is no agreement from any country to actually send any of those troops into Gaza yet.
Author: Nick Schifrin, Sonia Kopelev
Published at: 2025-10-21 22:55:26
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