The USA has practically exhausted the possibilities for new sanctions against Russia, - Rubio

We hit their biggest oil companies — that's what everyone was asking for," Marco Rubio said. He added that instead of new restrictions, the U. S. will focus on enforcing existing sanctions, particularly in the fight against the so-called "shadow fleet" that Moscow uses to circumvent oil restrictions.

According to Rubio, this direction will be key in the further work of the sanctions coalition, and European partners should play a more active role, because "a significant part of the trials is taking place closer to their territories. " Evaluating the position of the Kremlin regarding the possibility of a peaceful settlement, the State Secretary emphasized that "one can judge only by actions.

" "Moscow has clearly stated what they want — they want the rest of the Donetsk region, and such demands are unacceptable for the Ukrainian side," he noted. Rubio also commented on the new wave of missile attacks on the territory of Ukraine, which, in his opinion, are aimed at "destroying the energy grid and demoralizing the population.

" He confirmed that the United States is in constant negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities to help stabilize the energy system, which is "degrading every year. " According to the US Secretary of State, it is about the transfer of both special equipment and air defense equipment for the protection of critical infrastructure. "If that equipment is destroyed a week after it's installed, that's still a problem. And that's been the case for the last two or three years," Rubio added.

He also mentioned Tomahawk missiles, which were repeatedly requested in Kyiv, saying that "all these countries" want missiles capable of carrying a nuclear charge to be placed in Europe, but when the United States places aircraft carriers off the coast of Venezuela, in the hemisphere where "we live," it becomes a "problem. " Rubio also said that he had not spoken to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for a month, but "everything is fine.

" "The last conversation, in my opinion, I would characterize as follows: both sides agreed that the next time our presidents meet, there should be a concrete outcome. We have to understand that we have a real chance to achieve something positive, and we would very much like to see that happen. We would very much like to see this war end. But we cannot just have meetings for the sake of meetings. And I think both sides look at it that way. At least that's what I understand from our conversations.

So, you know, my conversations with them have always been professional and productive, but of course we want to see results," Rubio said. Also, the state secretary did not comment on the possible participation of the Russian PMK "Wagner" in the war in Sudan. According to him, there are "many players". And when asked whether the US will participate in the European plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, Rubio said that Scott Bessent is doing it.

Regarding Russian provocations of Russia in Europe, including the invasion of drones, Rubio spoke even more briefly. He said that "we don't like them" and the US is "strongly committed to NATO and to the defense of our partners if they are ever attacked. " "We believe that all of these provocations come from Russia.

We believe that they are counterproductive and obviously create a high level of tension that could lead to something larger, which would be bad news for them and bad news for everybody, really," Rubio said. It will be recalled that on October 22, the USA introduced sanctions against the Russian Federation for the first time during the presidency of Donald Trump. The oil giants "Lukoil" and "Rosneft" came under the American attack.