The US Secretary of State spoke about the lifting of sanctions against Russia

The administration of Donald Trump will analyze Moscow's position on the issue of lifting anti-Russian sanctions as part of the settlement on Ukraine, the next steps will be determined by the head of the White House. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on March 27.

He said that administration officials will hold a meeting with American officials who participated in expert consultations between Russia and the United States in Riyadh, and will discuss the position of the Russian side.

"We will analyze the issues that they [representatives of the Russian Federation] raised, we will figure out what exactly they are talking about," Rubio said on board the plane, returning to the United States after visiting Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname.

"These are a number of sanctions, including those that are not American," he added, speaking about the restrictions that the Russian side is seeking to lift.

"These are not American sanctions, so we could not lift them even if we wanted to. We will analyze what our team returned with [from consultations in Riyadh]," Rubio stressed.

"We will present options to the President [of the United States]. The President will make a decision on this. We are not at this stage yet," he explained.

The US Secretary of State did not comment on statements according to which the leaders of a number of European countries believe that the time has not yet come to lift sanctions against the Russian Federation.

When asked if he believes that the Russian side is trying to delay negotiations on Ukraine, Rubio replied:

"I'm not ready to make a judgment on that. They're meeting with us. They're talking to us. They come up with proposals. They agree to a ceasefire, but with conditions that we need to analyze."

The Secretary of State was also asked if, in his opinion, negotiations between the Russian Federation and the United States would soon take place "at a higher level" than expert consultations.

"I think we need more progress at the expert level now, but we'll see," he replied.

The transcript of Rubio's conversation with journalists was published by the press service of the State Department, TASS reports.

As reported, following the consultations Russia and the USA in In Riyadh, the Kremlin published a list agreed between Moscow and Washington of Russian and Ukrainian facilities subject to a temporary moratorium on strikes on the power grid. The restriction is valid for 30 days from March 18, it can be automatically canceled in case of violations, and the extension of the moratorium is also possible by mutual agreement.

Moscow and Washington also agreed on the implementation of the Black Sea initiative, including ensuring the safety of navigation. The agreements on the Black Sea will come into force after the lifting of sanctions from Russian banks providing trade in agricultural products and mineral fertilizers.