Recently, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the White House intends to intensify its efforts to restart peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. “In the coming weeks, you will see certain efforts aimed at determining whether we can resume negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring this war to an end. But we also understand that both sides have fairly clear red lines, and until we can bring those red lines somewhat closer together, we will not reach our goal. Nevertheless, we are ready to act, and the president [US President Donald Trump] has told his team: if you see an opportunity to become the force that can give momentum to peace negotiations, then let’s do it,” Rubio said.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. All previous attempts at such “efforts” arguably amounted to pressuring Ukraine into de-facto capitulation and restricting arms deliveries to Ukraine while Russia continued to intensify its strikes against civilians, advance on the battlefield, and destroy one Donbas city after another. Since the first attempts by the US to pressure Ukraine into accepting all of Russia’s demands for the sake of “peace,” Russia has destroyed Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovske, Myrnohrad, and Druzhkivka – cities with a combined pre-war population of nearly 300,000 – as well as dozens of villages. It has carried out more than 20 massive strikes on Kyiv, killing hundreds of people, while also advancing several kilometers along the front.