The secretary of state’s remarks followed the announcement that Washington and Kiev plan to ink a deal on Ukraine’s natural resources next week.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump will decide if ending the war in Ukraine is possible sometime in the coming days.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavor 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,” Rubio told reporters in Paris.
President Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his top campaign promises. Since taking office in January, his staff has engaged in several rounds of high-level talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials.
“The president feels very strongly about that. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this… this is important, but there are a lot of other really important things going on that deserve just as much, if not more attention,” Rubio said.
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading the American negotiations, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that talks with Russia were progressing well. In an interview that aired Monday, he explained, “This is the third meeting I’ve had with [Putin]. This last meeting lasted close to five hours. It was a compelling meeting, and towards the end, we actually came up with a path to a permanent peace.”
However, Trump and Rubio have stated that Russia is not engaging quickly enough in the diplomatic process. The president and secretary of state have both threatened new sanctions on Russia in recent weeks if the Kremlin does not agree to a deal to end the conflict very soon.
Moscow appears to be unwilling to accelerate the pace of talks on ending the war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue was “so complex that it’s unrealistic to expect immediate results.”
Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, US-Russian relations sank to a historic low point, with almost no contact between Washington and Russia during that period. Early rounds of talks between US and Russian officials focused on returning to a normal diplomatic relationship.
While Trump and Rubio have placed blame on Moscow for the lack of progress towards a peace deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly declared that Kiev would not surrender any territory to bring the war to an end.
Additionally, Kiev is moving closer to signing a deal to allow Washington to recapture some of the money spent on Ukraine aid by seizing profits from sales of oil, gas and rare earth minerals. A top Ukrainian official said a memorandum of intent was signed on Thursday, and the deal is expected to be inked next week.
It’s unclear if the arrangement includes security guarantees for Ukraine, but Rubio told reporters the issue came up during his talks in Paris.
Reprint from Antiwar.com
