By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United States could end its efforts aimed at bringing solutions to the Ukrainian conflict within “days” if progress is not made, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Friday.
“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” he told reporters before departing Paris, where he had held high-level talks with European and Ukrainian officials on the peace deal. “We need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable,” he said.
Later on Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Rubio was “right,” but he didn’t provide a timeline for the US to walk away when asked further. “No specific number of days, but quickly, we want to get it done.”
Asked to clarify what Rubio meant when he said the US would “move on,” a US official said the Secretary of State was referring to the US withdrawing from negotiations, and that the next few days would be important in determining the way forward, CNN reports.
A source familiar with the negotiations for a Ukraine peace deal said Rubio was “communicating the president’s views.” Characterising the administration’s thinking on the state of the conflict, the source said Trump “doesn’t have limitless patience for people to posture and play games.”
“It’s time to get serious,” the source added.
Trump expressed that view on Friday, saying, “If, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re foolish. You’re horrible people,’ and we’re just going to take a pass but hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Trump declined to say whether he is prepared to walk away completely from the talks or whether he would support Ukraine militarily if the talks fall through.
Asked what progress he would need to see to remain in the process of negotiations, Trump said he would “have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it” from both sides, predicting he would know “soon.”
A broad framework has been presented to Russia and Ukraine, Rubio and the State Department have said.
It would determine whether the differences between the two warring sides can be narrowed within this short timeframe.
Rubio said it would be taken by the Ukrainians back to Zelensky to discuss, and it was raised between Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their telephone conversation on Thursday.
Over the past few weeks, Trump officials have acknowledged privately that the chances of a quick peace deal in Ukraine have become increasingly elusive.
Rubio’s comments, according to three European diplomats, reflected growing frustration in the White House over Russian intransigence in ending the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said some progress on a peace settlement had already been made but that contacts with Washington were difficult. He said Russia was striving to resolve the conflict while ensuring its own interests. Moscow remained open to dialogue with the United States, he added.
US officials were also frustrated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comment this week that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was “spreading Russian narratives,” and said that was not helpful to the process, one US official said.
The talks in Paris on Thursday were the first substantive, high-level, in-person discussions on Trump’s peace initiative that have included European powers.
Rubio said a US peace framework he presented received an “encouraging reception.” Zelensky’s office called the talks constructive and positive.
