U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the door is still wide open for peace in Ukraine, and he made the pitch from the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan on October 19, 2026. Speaking to reporters during a trip for talks with Central Asian leaders, Rubio said President Donald Trump is open to anything he can do to help bring the war to an end, if it is possible, and that Washington will keep looking for openings. He pointed out that the United States has been engaged for almost two years without a major breakthrough, even as the war has now dragged on for about four years. Rubio said he sees nothing good coming from the fighting, warning that it carries a real risk of spilling into a neighboring country through a failed sabotage attack or stray drones knocked off course by electronic warfare. He also said no one is winning, and he pointed to the human and economic toll, including Trump’s repeated claim that as many as 25,000 people are dying each month.

Rubio also defended the administration’s decision to suspend certain sanctions on Russia for 60 days, saying the move is meant to test whether current talks involving Moscow and Kyiv can actually produce results. Trump has said the waivers and a diesel import deal with Russia should keep the Kremlin at the negotiating table, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the steps. A fresh Russian air strike hit Kyiv overnight, killing a woman, hitting a subway station and damaging a 25-storey apartment building, which gave the debate an urgent edge. Rubio denied that the United States paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine and urged Zelensky to focus on ending the war, while saying a possible Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping has been discussed but may not be finalized. The big question now is whether easing pressure on Moscow will pull Russia toward a real settlement, or whether critics are right that it simply gives the Kremlin breathing room.