Marco Rubio arrived in Samarkand on Sunday night to meet officials from the C5+1 grouping, then used a meeting with reporters on Monday to urge Ukraine and Russia to end their war. The group brings together the United States and the Muslim-majority post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Rubio denied that Washington had paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. His denial followed a 15 October report by The Washington Post that US intelligence officials had told Kyiv intelligence sharing would stop immediately if Ukraine kept attacking Russian oil refineries and petrochemical plants.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the suspension had been 'deblocked by the American side' after three days. He condemned the reported US pressure as an 'attempt to force Ukraine into capitulation.'
In Samarkand, Rubio said Ukraine and Russia should concentrate on ending the conflict. 'What he should be focused on and what we want to be focused on is bringing an end to this war,' Rubio said.
He warned of the wider risks of continued fighting. 'We see nothing good coming from this war. We see a lot of downside to it, including the very real risk of escalation and spread of this thing... into another country because of a failed sabotage attack, because of drones that are hit with electronic warfare and they wander into a neighbouring country,' he said.
President Donald Trump had written on Truth Social on Sunday that he was making 'great progress' in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. He claimed: 'Zelensky doesn't care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him... he doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did.'
Trump has become increasingly critical of Ukraine and has suggested that Zelensky should leave office. He also made a diesel import deal with Russia and waived some sanctions on Moscow, saying the steps should keep the Kremlin at the negotiating table. Trump wrote: 'Zelensky is using Diesel Refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States.'
Rubio also appeared to confirm reports of talks on a summit involving the United States, Russia and China to discuss ending the war. Ukraine would be excluded from the floated meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a 'hypothetical' trilateral summit was under discussion.
As Rubio spoke, Russia said it had carried out a 'massive strike' on targets in Kyiv and its region. The Russian Defence Ministry said the attack targeted military-industrial facilities, storage sites for cruise missiles and drones, and data centres.
A Russian air strike overnight killed a woman in Kyiv, hit a subway station and damaged a 25-storey residential building. Ukrainian sources said there had been no early warning of the ballistic threat during the attack early on Monday.
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