NEW YORK, July 31. /TASS/. Washington maintains contact with Moscow in order to reach an understanding on resolving the Ukraine conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox Radio in an interview.

"We continue to engage with the Russian side," he noted. "Early this week, on Monday or Tuesday, we had full conversation with them as well, not with [President Vladimir] Putin, but with some of Putin’s top people in hopes of arriving at some understanding on a path forward that would lead to peace. And we’ve not seen any progress on that," Rubio added.

On July 14, Trump announced a 50-day deadline for an agreement on resolving the Ukraine conflict, adding that if no deal was reached, he would impose 100% tariffs on Moscow and its trading partners. On July 29, the US leader said he was reducing the deadline to 10-12 days. However, he added he wasn’t sure if the move would influence Russia’s position. According to Acting US Alternate Representative to the UN John Kelley, Trump expects Russia and Ukraine to achieve a peaceful solution by August 8. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin had taken note of the US president’s statement.