How stupid are they?? Even my grandmother knew they were being played, and she has been dead for 40 years!

Rubio echoes Trump’s ‘disappointment and frustration’ in talk with Russian counterpart

The meeting between Russia and the U.S.’s chief diplomats comes on the heels of a phone call between Trump and Putin.

By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he “echoed” President Donald Trump’s “disappointment and frustration at the lack of progress” in talks to end Russia’s war on Ukraine during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.

Rubio met with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Malaysia on Thursday. The face-to-face conversation comes amid growing tension between Washington and Moscow, as the Kremlin’s determination to continue its war on Ukraine has thwarted Trump’s attempts to broker peace — a feat he had promised to deliver swiftly upon entering office.

“Our strategy is to continue to engage all parties involved in finding an outcome to this conflict,” Rubio told reporters after his talk with Lavrov. “We will engage any time that we have an opportunity to do so, like we did today. I echoed what the president said — both disappointment and frustration at the lack of progress.”

Trump has appeared to grow exasperated with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in recent days, as he said he doesn’t know if he will be able to end the war after holding a call with Putin that made “no progress” toward peace.

After appearing to increasingly align himself with Putin at the start of his second term, Trump made an about-face after their most recent call, bashing his Russian counterpart during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting for spewing “bullshit” at the U.S.

In the same meeting, Trump said he was “very strongly” considering supporting a bill to institute severe sanctions against Russia in an effort to pressure Moscow to fall in line.

Rubio’s comments also come as the Trump administration resumed weapons shipments to Ukraine after a brief pause because of concerns about low U.S. weapons stockpiles.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued hammering Ukraine, slamming the country with a nearly 10-hour strike on Wednesday night in an attack that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “clear escalation of terror by Russia.”