Rubio's influence has changed Trump's stance on Russia – Bloomberg
His stance contrasts with the more conciliatory strategy on Russia advocated by Trump's long-time friend and special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
White House press secretary Anna Kelly rejected this characterisation of Rubio's role.
Quote from Kelly: "President Trump always leads on foreign policy, and his agenda is executed by national security officials like Secretary Rubio and Special Envoy Witkoff, who are one, unified team behind the President's America First vision."
More details: Bloomberg notes that there is no indication that Witkoff has lost Trump's trust on Russia or his wider influence.
Some sources said Witkoff's discussions with Putin and other senior officials ahead of the previous summit in Alaska caused confusion and created the false impression that Moscow was willing to make concessions it never intended to honour.
The sources added that the August summit was tense because Putin insisted on negotiations about Ukrainian territory, which frustrated Trump and nearly caused him to leave the room. This time, Rubio led the preparatory groundwork.
The State Department earlier described Rubio's conversation with Lavrov as productive. When asked about Rubio's role, department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that the "entire team is fully unified around President Trump's leadership". People suggesting otherwise are wrong, he said.
Background: Kremlin special envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrived in the United States for talks shortly after Trump announced tough new sanctions against Russia.
NATO secretary general says Putin is "running out of money, troops and ideas"
Details: Rutte believes the situation on the line of contact shows the ineffectiveness of Russia's strategy and the enormous price that they are paying for minor advances.
Quote: "In Ukraine, Putin is gaining little new ground on the battlefield – and where there are marginal gains they are coming at a huge price. Hundreds of thousands of Russians are dying for Putin's deluded aggression. Ukraine continues defending itself bravely and our support to them is working. The truth is that Putin is running out of money, troops and ideas."
Details: Rutte stressed that the time has come to increase pressure on Russia to achieve a just peace. In this context, he welcomed the recent announcements by European allies and Canada on providing additional military assistance to Ukraine and the approval of the 19th package of sanctions.
"The developments on the battlefield show that our support to Ukraine is working, and we need to keep it up. We need to pair this support with sanctions and economic pressure [on Russia]," he emphasised.
Rutte is optimistic regarding Western unity, mentioning "good discussions" this week in Washington, Brussels and London, which in his view indicate movement in the right direction to end the war.
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