Rubio to head commission on Ukraine security guarantees

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a newly formed joint commission that will work on forging a security guarantees proposal for Ukraine, an administration official told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation on Tuesday.

The commission will be made up of U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials. 

The agreement for the commission came during Monday’s White House meeting between President Trump and the seven European leaders who visited Washington. 

The news of Rubio as the commission’s head was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The outlet reported Monday night that Ukraine’s security assurances will be made up of four parts: air defense, a military presence, tracking the cessation of fighting and armaments, citing European officials familiar with the matter. 

Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security advisor, was one of three U.S. officials to participate in a closed-door meeting with the Russian delegation on Friday in Alaska, headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Trump talked to Putin over the phone on Monday after the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. Neither Zelensky nor European officials were in the room when the president spoke with the Kremlin leader. 

“I didn’t do it in front of them — I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn’t do that, because they have not had the warmest relations,” Trump told Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday. 

The call lasted for around 40 minutes, with the president telling Putin that the administration will set up a meeting between the Kremlin leader and Zelensky, which Russia has so far refused to commit to. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Kremlin is not turning down talks with Ukraine and added that Trump has an invitation to come to Moscow. 

Trump, who has pressed to help end the Russia-Ukraine war, one that has been raging for about three-and-a-half years, floated on Tuesday providing air support for Kyiv as part of security guarantees. 

“We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have,” the president said. 

The Russian foreign minister warned NATO leaders against summoning NATO forces to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.