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The US will walk away from talks aimed at brokering a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that an agreement can be reached, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned.
Mr Rubio’s threats came at the start of the Easter weekend, after Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine left one person dead and 98 injured in Kharkiv on Friday morning. US officials said last month that the US president hoped to secure a ceasefire agreement by 20 April, a symbolic date on which both Western and Orthodox celebrations of Easter will overlap this year – and one which is fast approaching, with no deal currently in close sight.
Thursday had shown signs of some progress in US talks with Ukraine, after Donald Trump said he expected to sign a minerals deal with Kyiv next week. Negotiations had been delayed after his explosive Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
But in another stark shift, after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders the previous day, Mr Rubio said Mr Trump is prepared to just declare “well, we're done” on the peace talks and the US has “bigger challenges that we need to figure out”.
“There's no one saying this can be done in 12 hours,” he said. “But we want to see how far apart it is. We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it's not, then I think we're just going to move on.”
There was no immediate comment from Paris, London, Berlin or Kyiv on Mr Rubio's statement, although three European diplomatic sources told Reuters that his comments reflected growing frustration in the White House over Russian intransigence to end the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that some progress on a peace settlement had already been made, insisting that Russia is striving to resolve the conflict. He said that Moscow remained open to dialogue with Washington but that contacts were difficult.
Vice President JD Vance did add later on Friday that the US is “optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close”.
The discussions in Paris on Thursday – which Mr Zelensky's office called constructive and positive – were the first substantive, high level and in-person talks on Mr Trump's peace push that have included European powers.
Mr Rubio said the Europeans had a central role to play in any peace pact – especially as their Russia sanctions over which Washington has no control would likely need to be lifted to secure an accord. He called the talks “constructive”, with the reception to the US peace framework he presented described as “encouraging”.
Mr Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in the White House. He then moderated that claim on taking office, as obstacles to a deal mounted.
Mr Trump has pressured both sides to come to the negotiating table, threatening tougher sanctions on Russia or an end to billions of dollars in US military support for Kyiv. Both Ukraine and Russia showed up for US-brokered talks in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in a partial ceasefire, but nothing more.
Russia has kept up a series of deadly strikes on Ukrainian cities, according to officials there, wounding scores of civilians days after missiles killed at least 34 during Palm Sunday celebrations in the northern city of Sumy – an attack Mr Trump called a “mistake”. The strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, early in the day on Friday, struck a "densely populated" neighborhood four times, its mayor Ihor Terekhov reported.
The US and Ukraine do, however, appear to be nearing a long-delayed deal granting the US access to Ukraine's vast mineral resources, which has been intertwined with Mr Trump's peace push. Mr Trump announced on Thursday, “We have a minerals deal,” and Ukraine's economy minister said the following day that the two countries signed a memorandum of intent ahead of a possible fuller agreement later.
But if Washington walks away from ceasefire talks, efforts to broker a peace would likely flounder because no other nation is able to bring similar pressure on both Moscow and Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited. Kyiv says those demands are tantamount to demanding its capitulation.
English (US) ·