US will abandon Ukraine peace push if no progress ‘within a matter of days’, says Rubio

PARIS – US President Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days, unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on April 18.

“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end. 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,” Mr Rubio said in Paris

after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders

.

“If it’s not possible, if we’re so far apart that this is not going to happen, then I think the President is probably at a point where he’s going to say, ‘well, we’re done’.”

There was no immediate comment from Paris, London, Berlin or Kyiv on Mr Rubio’s statement.

Three European diplomatic sources told Reuters that Mr Rubio’s comments reflected growing frustration in the White House over Russian intransigence to end 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 US, he added.

Mr Rubio’s threats came amid signs of some progress in US talks with Ukraine. Mr Trump said on April 17 that he

expected to sign a deal with Kyiv next week,

after an attempt in February fell apart following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Oval Office clash with Mr Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance.

The talks in Paris on April 17 were the first substantive, high-level and in-person talks on Mr Trump’s peace push that have included European powers.

Mr Rubio said a US peace framework he presented received an “encouraging reception”. Mr Zelensky’s office called the talks constructive and positive.

Growing frustrations as peace deals prove elusive

It was unclear why Mr Rubio’s tone shifted so dramatically overnight. Still, his comments on April 18 underline mounting frustrations in the White House over a lack of progress in pushes to settle a growing list of geopolitical challenges.

Mr Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May as obstacles mounted.

He 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.

Meanwhile, the war has continued, including a recent Russian missile attack that hit Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine, killing 35 people – an attack Mr Trump called a “mistake”.

If Washington walks away, efforts to broker a peace deal would likely flounder because no other nation is able to bring similar pressure on both Moscow and Kyiv.

Other impacts are unclear.

The US could keep its current policy on the conflict unchanged, maintaining sanctions on Russia and keeping US aid flowing to Kyiv. Alternatively, Mr Trump could decide to halt payments to Ukraine.

Mr Rubio said he spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the Paris talks and had told him they had been constructive, and also briefed him on “some of the elements” of the US peace framework.

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.

Dropping European sanctions part of peace deal?

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.

Mr Rubio said the issue of US security guarantees as part of any deal came up in the talks in Paris, saying they were an issue “we can fix in a way that’s acceptable to everyone”. But, he cautioned, “we have bigger challenges that we need to figure out”.

He added that it was clear a peace deal would be difficult to strike, but there needed to be signs it could be done soon.

“There’s no one saying this can be done in 12 hours. But we want to see how far apart it is and whether those differences can even be narrowed, if it’s even possible to get movement within the period of time we have in mind,” Mr Rubio said.

“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.” REUTERS