The U.S. has officially confirmed for the first time that Russia demands the surrender of Donbas to end the war

U.S. authorities have for the first time confirmed media reports that Russia is demanding territorial concessions to end the war in Ukraine—specifically, handing over the Donbas.

This was stated by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Canada.

He was answering a journalist’s question about whether Russia is seeking to halt hostilities.

“We can only judge by what we see. They have clearly stated that they want all of Donetsk, and of course the Ukrainians will not agree to that. So yes, that’s the conclusion we have to draw. They have set demands that Ukraine cannot accept, and that’s where we are now,” Rubio said.

As a reminder, leading Western media have long written about this Russian condition, put forward in Anchorage. They also reported that U.S. President Donald Trump and his special envoy Steven Witkoff “pressured” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Moscow’s terms.