Marco Rubio warns of Ukraine war stalemate as US pushes for peace deal

The Russia Ukraine war has escalated with more deadly attacks this week, killing civilians, and hitting key infrastructure including data centres.

Published 9 October 2026 3:43pm

United States secretary of state Marco Rubio says Russia's war in Ukraine is at a dangerous stalemate and the US will keep working toward a settlement to end the conflict.

"We'd love ‌to see a negotiated settlement to this war that is permanent, enduring and fair. And that's what we're committed to continuing to do," Rubio told reporters during a visit to Portugal on Friday AEDT.

US President Donald Trump's administration in ‌recent weeks has ‌sought to ⁠revive talks to end the four-year-old conflict, with Ukrainian negotiators set to visit the US for talks on Saturday and Sunday.

Russia spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Friday that Russia agreed with Rubio that the Ukraine conflict was in a stalemate.

"Yes, we agree with him," Russian news agencies quoted Peskov as saying on the sidelines of a meeting of leaders of ex-Soviet states in Turkmenistan.

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State news agency RIA quoted Peskov as saying it was up to diplomats to find ways of moving towards peace.

"The art of diplomacy precisely involves finding some way out that would allow moving onto a peaceful track," Peskov was quoted as saying.

Mutual drone attacks by Russia and Ukraine this year have gradually spread across the economy, hitting targets from energy facilities ⁠and refineries to ports and vessels ‌carrying oil and grain, e-commerce warehouses and, most recently, data centres.

On Thursday, Russian ‌technology and AI company Yandex said ‌it could not yet determine whether equipment at ‌a data centre hit by a Ukrainian drone attack could be restored.

Yandex said earlier the attack on its Sasovo hub, one of ‌its five ‌large ⁠data centres, caused a fire and forced it to suspend operations at the site, which hosts tens of thousands of servers.

"The scale of the damage to the infrastructure ⁠is still being ‌assessed," Yandex said in a statement. "For the moment, we cannot confirm ‌whether it is possible to restore the data centre equipment in Sasovo."

The company earlier said some of its services were unavailable and specialist teams were at the site ‌assessing the damage.

Two of Yandex's three supercomputers, used to develop its AI model, are housed at the Sasovo data centre. Yandex has not said whether they were damaged.

On Thursday, Russian strikes on two buses killed more than 30 people in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, one of the deadliest attacks in weeks — sending a two-day death toll from Russian strikes to over 70.

Rubio said these escalations could spark ‌a wider conflict.

"That escalation could wind up being a sabotage campaign in neighbouring countries that are members of NATO," he said, adding that other things "could quickly turn what is a war between two countries into a much broader and far more dangerous regional conflict".

"This war ‌needs to end in a negotiated settlement. The sooner, the better. The United States stands ready to facilitate that. We have tried. We will continue to try. But we're also not going to invest in pointless processes if we can't make progress."

US envoys Steve Witkoff and ‌Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian representatives on Friday in Miami to discuss new ideas ‌and try to produce a unified proposal for resolving the war, a US source familiar with the plan said on Thursday.

The source said Witkoff and Kushner would hold a working session with the Ukrainians to discuss "new ideas and proposals that US negotiators began developing with the Russians and Ukrainians during their recent visit to the ⁠region".

The meeting will include representatives from the ‌White House National Security Council and the US Treasury Department, the source said.

Ukraine's chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, intelligence ‌chief Rustem Umerov, and top negotiator David Arakhamia will represent Ukraine.

Russia's Peskov, however, was quoted as saying he saw no immediate prospect for a three-way summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump.

He restated Russia wanted an overall solution to the conflict and was not interested in temporary measures, like a limited ceasefire.

"We are not for a fragmented solution; we are for a comprehensive solution that will allow for sustainable settlement for many, many years, for decades," the agencies quoted him as saying.

US negotiators also invited national security advisors from the United Kingdom, France and Germany as well as officials from NATO and the European Union.

They are expected to discuss proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine, a post-war prosperity plan and other aspects ‌of the conflict, the source said.

The source said the Europeans had told the United States of their frustration with high energy costs and other major financial effects of the conflict.

"It will be a tough winter if the war does not stop. So, the United States is trying to mediate with the sides with the goal of creating a ⁠unified proposal," the source said.

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