The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the management of President Donald Trump in a position to abandon efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine if there is no significant progress on the factor in the next few days.
Rubio, who met with European and Ukrainian leaders in Paris a day earlier, told reporters on Friday, “If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on.”
The secretary of state then added that Washington was not going to “continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end” and it needed to quickly determine if a deal would be “doable.”
Rubio said Trump felt very strongly about this and has “dedicated a lot of time and energy to this,” but there were other “really important things” which deserve “just as much, if not more attention.”
He said Washington is keen to see an end to the “terrible” war but added “It’s not our war…we didn’t start it.”
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The secretary of state outlined a timeline for how quickly Washington expects the peace process to progress for it to stay involved in negotiations. Rubio said Trump “has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly making efforts to bring this war to an end,” but Washington has no interest in letting this matter stretch on for several weeks and months. “So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.” Once the U.S. walks away, Rubio said the Trump administration will “do what we can on the margins. We’ll be ready to help whenever you’re ready to have peace.”
Shortly after Rubio’s remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that Russia remained open to dialogue. “Russia seeks to achieve a resolution to this conflict and uphold its national interests, and it remains open to dialogue. We are actively engaged in this dialogue,” the spokesperson said. Peskov also noted that a month-long moratorium that prevented both sides from targeting each other’s energy infrastructure has expired, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has not issued any other instructions on the matter.
Rubio’s remarks also came hours after Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko signed a “Memorandum of Intent” with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent which “paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.” Svyrydenko added: “It is very important that the document notes the desire of the American people to invest together with the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign, and secure Ukraine.” It is unclear how this investment fund plan would be impacted if Rubio follows through with his threat to walk away from peace talks.