Neither Ukraine or Russia are engaging in the peace process properly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested on Friday morning as he boarded his flight back to the U.S., saying if there isn’t a breakthrough in the peace process within days the United States would disengage.
The United States is not willing to attend endless unproductive meetings, and meetings for the sake of having meetings, Rubio told press on the tarmac in barely-veiled criticism of both Moscow and Kyiv. He said: “We came here yesterday to begin to talk about more specific outlines of what it might take to end the war, to try to figure out very soon and I’m talking about a matter of days, not a matter of weeks, whether or not this is a war that can be ended.
“If it can, we’re prepared to do whatever we can to facilitate that to make sure that happens, that it ends in a durable and just way.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C) arrives at the Quai d’Orsay, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs before a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart in Paris on April 17, 2025. Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
If there are no indications the two sides are actually willing to agree to a ceasefire — previous bids to establish such a state have been met with further demands for concessions, conditions, and carveouts — then “the President’s probably at a point where he’s going to say ‘well, we’re done’.”
Remarkably, Rubio appeared to imply that neither Russia nor Ukraine appeared to be engaging properly, saying in his remarks both that the U.S. was on the verge of walking away, but that it wouldn’t if “either side or both” got on board to make progress, a tacit admission that at present neither is. He said: “We’re trying to prevent [bombings] but we’re not going to be flying all over the world and do meeting after meeting after meeting if no progress is being made.
“If they’re serious about peace, either side or both, then we’re going to help… if it’s just a meeting to have another meeting, we’ll figure out whether that will happen… I’m wiling to come myself if the meeting is going to be productive.”
While his remarks were stark, Rubio’s warning also made clear the U.S. stepping away from unproductive talks, what he called meetings for the sake of having meetings, was not Trump washing his hands of Ukraine. If one side or the other later was to really engage in good faith, the U.S. would come back to mediate, he said.
Rubio said: “We’ll do what we can, on the margins, we’ll be able to help whenever you’re ready to have peace. But 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. If it is, we’re in. If it’s not, we have other priorities to focus on.”
Nevertheless it is not clear what peace talks collapsing would mean for the conflict in the short term, given the status-quo is presently sanctions against Russia and the threat of secondary sanctions if it failed to engage in peace talks, and weapons supplies and intelligence for Ukraine and the threat of delivery suspension if Kyiv doesn’t play ball. Rubio warned both sides that there is “no military solution” to the conflict and talks were needed to save the lives of thousands.
In contrast, Rubio was relatively praiseworthy of the involvement of individual European nations, with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy namechecked, but not the European Union trade bloc. Rubio said: “We had a good meeting yesterday, I thought the French, the British, the Germans were very constructive, very helpful… we’d like [Europe] to remain engaged. I think they can help us. [Those nations] can help us move the ball on this and get it closer to a resolution, I think they were very helpful and constructive with their ideas.”
Rubio’s remarks came after talks took place between European leaders, the U.S., and Ukraine in Paris on Thursday. European leaders were evidently more buoyant about how they had gone than America’s Rubio, with one French official having called them “excellent”, stating “the Americans are ready to discuss security guarantees”, a longstanding concern of European states who are aware they can’t defend Ukraine alone without American help.
One major area of friction between the U.S. and Ukraine in recent months was the collapse of the rare earths mineral deal, a device created by the Trump administration to rebalance the relationship between the two nations from one of dependence to that of commercial interest. The original incarnation of the agreement to allow the U.S. to make back the billions it had donated to Kyiv under the last Presidency blew up spectacularly when President Volodymyr Zelensky came to Washington with fresh demands.
Yet positive moves appears to be underway here, with Zelensky saying on Thursday “good progress” had been made on the minerals deal. President Trump has said a full deal could be signed as early as next week, and Ukraine said Friday morning it had signed an outline deal with Washington, possibly heralding the exact progress Rubio said the U.S. needed to see.
Breitbart News
Read the full article .
