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Secretary Rubio Addresses the UN Security Council Ministerial on Ukraine, Sep. 23, 2025

September 23, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:04:28

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed a UN Security Council ministerial meeting on Ukraine in New York City on September 23, 2025, according to the State Department broadcast.

He opened with the President’s peace record as he presented it — the India-Pakistan cessation of hostilities, Thailand-Cambodia, the DRC-Rwanda work, and the Azerbaijan-Armenia agreement signed at the White House — before turning to the war that “has proved to be an extraordinarily challenge.” The administration, he said, has held meetings in Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Alaska and made countless phone calls, because the war “cannot end militarily. It will end at a negotiating table.” He cited the human scale as he stated it — in one month alone, Russian military losses exceeding the entirety of U.S. losses in Afghanistan or Iraq — and the offers already made, including a ceasefire at the current lines of contact while other details are worked out, and the President’s patience in not assessing sanctions in hopes of a breakthrough.

That patience, he warned, has a limit: “The President is a very patient man, he’s very committed to peace, but his patience is not infinite.” The options before the President include imposing additional economic costs on Russia and selling Ukraine defensive — and potentially offensive — weaponry. With strikes at historically high levels and incursions into neighboring airspace, he urged the Council and both sides to end the war before it lasts another three or four years: “if there is no path to peace in the short term — then the United States and President Donald J. Trump will take the steps necessary to impose costs for continued aggression.”

Why it matters

The Security Council address is the public escalation warning that preceded the sanctions the Secretary would explain a month later at Joint Base Andrews: the negotiating-table doctrine, the ceasefire-at-the-lines offer, and the costs threat all stated to Russia’s face in the Council chamber.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the September 23, 2025 warning that continued aggression would bring additional U.S. economic costs on Russia — followed, as the Secretary later noted on October 22, by the sanctions decision that day. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Participates in a UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine” (official upload, embedded above; New York City). Remarks as delivered 2025-09-23; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.