Rubio warns that the US will cease its peace efforts in Ukraine if significant progress isn’t achieved soon

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Friday that President Donald Trump will abandon efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine within days unless there are evident indications that a deal is achievable.

“We cannot prolong this effort for weeks or months. We need to quickly assess, within a matter of days, whether reaching an agreement in the coming weeks is feasible,” Rubio remarked in Paris following discussions with European and Ukrainian leaders.

“The president is very committed to this issue. He has invested significant time and effort into it… This matter is crucial, but there are numerous other pressing issues that also require considerable attention,” he added.

Rubio’s remarks come as there are signs of progress in U.S. discussions with Ukraine. Trump indicated on Thursday that he anticipates signing an agreement with Kyiv next week, which would grant the U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources. A previous attempt to finalize a minerals agreement in February collapsed following tensions between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, during a meeting in the Oval Office.

After the Paris discussions, which marked the first significant high-level in-person talks regarding Trump’s peace initiative involving European nations, Rubio noted that the U.S. peace proposal received a “positive response.” Zelenskiy’s office described the discussions as constructive and beneficial.

Rubio’s comments highlight growing frustrations within the White House regarding the lack of progress in addressing an increasing array of geopolitical issues. During his campaign, Trump vowed to resolve the conflict in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in office, but he later tempered that promise, suggesting a potential agreement by April or May as challenges arose.

Rubio also mentioned that he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the Paris meetings, informing him that the discussions had been productive and sharing some aspects of the U.S. peace framework.

Rubio mentioned that the topic of U.S. security guarantees was discussed during the meetings in Paris, although he did not provide further specifics.

He indicated that security guarantees are an issue that “we can address in a manner that is acceptable to all parties,” but emphasized that “we face larger challenges that we need to resolve, particularly regarding the feasibility of achieving this in the short term.”

He acknowledged the difficulty of reaching a peace agreement but stressed the importance of demonstrating that progress could be made soon. “No one is claiming this can be accomplished in just 12 hours.

However, we want to assess the extent of the gaps and whether those differences can be bridged, and if it’s even feasible to make progress within the timeframe we have in mind,” he stated. Requests for comments from the French presidency and foreign ministry went unanswered.