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The US could walk away from its efforts to broker peace in Ukraine within days if meaningful progress is not made, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Friday during a press briefing in Paris, CNN reported.
“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Rubio reportedly said before departing the French capital, where he had held high-level talks with European and Ukrainian officials. “We need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable,” he said, according to CNN.
The warning comes amid reports of growing frustration within the Trump administration over the deadlock in the now three-year-long war. Moscow, Kyiv says, has continued to stall negotiations and recently rejected a ceasefire agreement accepted by Ukraine. President Donald Trump, who had pledged on the campaign trail to end the war “in a day,” said earlier this week that “Russia has to get moving”.
Despite a series of meetings on Thursday that the State Department described as an “excellent exchange” and advancements on a minerals deal between Kyiv and Washington, there has been little tangible movement toward a ceasefire, the report said. A 30-day U.S.-brokered truce on attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure expired Thursday, with both sides accusing each other of repeated violations throughout.
According to a State Department readout, a US-authored outline for a peace plan received an “encouraging reception” during the Paris meetings, though few details have been disclosed. Rubio also reportedly discussed the proposal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We came to Paris to begin to talk about more specific outlines of what it might take to end the war,” CNN quoted Rubio as saying. “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 we’re done.”
“It’s not our war. We didn’t start it. The United States has been helping Ukraine for the past three years and we want it to end, but it’s not our war,” Rubio added.
“President (Trump) has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to and end. We are now reaching a point when we need to decide and determine whether this is even possible or not. Which is why we’re engaging both sides”.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched a missile attack overnight on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, hitting a residential neighborhood, the report said, adding that Ukrainian authorities confirmed one death and 67 injuries, with rescue operations continuing amid fears more victims could be trapped beneath rubble.
U.S.-Ukraine Mineral Deal Advances
Rubio’s comments came just hours after Washington and Kyiv made some progress toward a long-awaited minerals agreement, with Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announcing the signing of a memorandum of intent on Thursday.
“We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” she wrote in a post on X.
Notably, a previously proposed deal fell through following a public disagreement between Trump and Zelenskyy in February.
“There is a lot to do, but the current pace and significant progress give reason to expect that the document will be very beneficial for both countries,” Svyrydenko further said.
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