US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back against accusations that the Trump administration has given in to Russia even before talks on ending the Ukraine war begin, saying Washington first wants to see whether Moscow was "serious".

Russia and the United States agreed to establish teams to negotiate ending the war at talks in Riyadh earlier this week. Neither Ukraine nor its European allies were invited.

US President Donald Trump "wants this war with Ukraine to end. And he wants to know: Are the Russians serious about ending the war, or not serious about ending the war?" Rubio said in an interview on Thursday posted on social network X.

"The only way is to test them, to basically engage them and say, okay, are you serious about ending the war, and if so, what are........

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