Rubio describes Russia-Ukraine war as territorial dispute ahead of November peace talks

"At its core, (the war) is about 11% of one part of that country that Russia wants and cannot take militarily and that Ukraine is unwilling to give up," Rubio said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to reduce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a territorial dispute over the Donbas Region in comments to reporters last week.

"(P)eople keep talking about it's a war in Ukraine. That war is about Donbas.  It's about one region of the country," Rubio told reporters during a visit to India last week.

"At its core, (the war) is about 11% of one part of that country that Russia wants and cannot take militarily and that Ukraine is unwilling to give up."

This comes after the US announced that trilateral peace talks between the three countries would take place in November.

In a major departure from US foreign policy, President Donald Trump waived sanctions for Russia and announced that the US would be purchasing Russian diesel.

Does the US understand what is going on in Ukraine?

But by framing the Ukraine-Russia War as a territorial dispute, Rubio’s comments could reveal where the Trump administration’s head is at before the talks in November.

It also signals that the administration has a profound misunderstanding of the war and Putin’s ambitions for Ukraine.

Putin said on Thursday that the territories in eastern Ukraine claimed by Moscow were "historically Russian land," raising stakes in talks to settle the conflict.

"Firstly, my attitude on this matter is that this is not their territory. It’s the territory of historical Russia," he said.

Putin also said any future trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine should focus on security guarantees for both Russia and Ukraine, adding that broader European security issues should also be discussed.

"The goal of these talks will be to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after reaching peace agreements, in their final form, not as a result of a temporary ceasefire for some short period of time. We are ready to resume these contacts to achieve this goal," Putin said.

The Russian president said Witkoff also stressed that discussions had to extend to "the architecture of European security as a whole. And I agree with that too. Well, let's see how things develop in the coming days."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday, said Ukraine was ready for talks likely to take place by early next month. Ukraine, he said, supported "any proposals for a ceasefire, an end to the war, an energy ceasefire as well as humanitarian initiatives."