US will abandon Ukraine peace efforts if no progress made soon Rubio says

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