Paris – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States could “pass” Russia-Ukraine Peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days. Months of effort from the White House failed to end the fighting, despite the repeated promises of President Trump before he took office that he would use his skills as a negotiator to end the war immediately.
Rubio spoke in Paris after historic talks between the United States, Ukrainian and European officials have produced contours for marches towards peace and seemed to make long-awaited progress. A new meeting is expected next week in London, and Rubio suggested that this could be decisive to determine if the Trump administration continues its involvement.
“We are now reaching a point where we have to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told journalists at the start. “Because if this is not the case, then I think we are just going to continue.”
“It’s not our war,” said Rubio. “We have other priorities to focus on.” He said that the American administration wanted to decide “in a few days”.
His remarks contrasts strongly with the position of the Biden administration, during which the Secretary of State then Antony Blinken warned Shortly after the start of the war that the autocratic president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was determined “to reconstruct the Soviet Empire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also has warnedincluding in Several interviews with CBS NewsThat Putin intends to extend the borders of Russia by force – and the rupture of forged security obligations among Western democracies during the Second World War, including the NATO United States alliance was the most tangible.
“For him, we are a satellite of the Russian Federation. For the moment, it is us, then Kazakhstan, then the Baltic States, then Poland, then Germany. At least half of Germany,” Zelenskyy told CBS News, Charlie d’Agata, about a year ago. “This assault and Putin’s army can come to Europe, then citizens of the United States, the United States soldiers, will have to protect Europe because they are NATO members.”
Zelenskyy called the invasion of Russia a war “against democracy, against values, against the whole world”, even recognizing when some in the West could be tired of hearing this message, “but only these are tired who are not at war, which do not know what war is and who have never lost its children.”
“If we are not firm, he will advance further,” reiterated Zelenskyy in an interview with 60 minutes this month. “It is not only inactive speculation; The threat is real. Putin’s ultimate objective is to relaunch the Russian Empire and recover the territories currently under the protection of NATO. Given all of this, I think it could degenerate in the world war. ”
Trump says “we have a mineral agreement” with Ukraine
Friday, Rubio’s comments came a few hours after the United States and Ukraine apparently deepened an agreement for a long time to grant us access to The vast mineral resources of Ukrainewhich was linked to President Trump’s surge of peace.
“We have a mineral agreement,” said Trump on Thursday, and the Minister of the Economy of Ukraine said on Friday that the two countries had signed a protocol of intention before a possible full agreement later.
The Agreement, which the Ukrainian Minister of the Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko, said that she had signed with the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, should open the way to significant investments, to modernize infrastructure and long -term cooperation.
Work towards the mineral agreement had stopped in February following a Controversial oval office meeting Between Mr. Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Negotiations have since resumed.
Rubio on dialogue with Russia and Europe
Despite an apparent impatience by growing with the peace efforts, Rubio qualified Thursday’s Paris talks. “No one has rejected anything, no one got up from the table or moved away.”
Rubio did not distinguish Russia or Ukraine as blocking peace efforts. He said that he had informed the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, the outlines that emerged when they talked after the talks in Paris, but would not say how Lavrov reacted.
Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP / Getty
Friday, during Rubio’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that “quite complex” negotiations were underway between Russia and the United States, he had not given details but said that no direct talks between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was planned in the coming days.
“Russia strives to resolve this conflict, guaranteeing its own interests and is open to dialogue. We continue to do so,” he said.
In his reading on the call with Rubio, the Kremlin said that Lavrov had confirmed the “will of Moscow to continue working with American colleagues to reliably eliminate the profound causes of the Ukrainian crisis”.
Putin and his deputies have always claimed that these deep causes are the actions of Zelenskyy and the expansion towards the east of NATO – of the deceptive stories that Mr. Trump himself sometimes married About the large -scale invasion, Putin launched on February 24, 2022.
After weeks of tension with European allies, Rubio told journalists in Paris that European negotiators have proven to be useful. “The United Kingdom and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this subject.”
Friday, during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, Vice-President JD Vance also spoke of the negotiations in progress with Ukraine and Russia, saying that he did not “pre-judge them, but we feel optimistic that we can put this war, this very brutal war.”
European Concerns increaseHowever, on Mr. Trump’s preparation to get closer to Russia. These talks were the first time that its inauguration that senior American, Ukrainian and European officials met to discuss the end of the war, which posed the greatest security challenge to Europe since the Second World War.
Meetings have addressed hypothetical security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, but Rubio would not discuss a possible American role in this area. A kind of American support for Ukraine is considered crucial to ensure that Russia would no longer attack if and when a peace agreement is concluded.
Rubio and the presidential envoy Steve Witkoff helped lead American efforts to seek peace, and Witkoff met three times with Putin, said Rubio. Several series of negotiations took place in Saudi Arabia.
Moscow actually refused to accept a complete ceasefire that Trump pushed and Ukraine approved. Russia has stopped the mobilization efforts of Ukraine and Western weapons supplies, which are requests rejected by Ukraine.
Deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine continue
Russia, on the other hand, has held a series of fatal strikes in Ukrainian cities Missiles have killed at least 34 years old on Sundays Celebrations in the city in the north of Sumy.
One person died and 103 others, including eight children, were injured while Russia struck Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, said Mayor Ihor Terekhov early. He said that cluster’s ammunition struck a “densely populated” district four times.
Viktoria Yakymenko / Susilne Ukraine / JSC “UA: PBC” / Global Images Ukraine / Getty
Russian drones have also targeted a bakery in Sumy, less than a week after the deadly twisting on Sunday, killing a client and injuring an employee, said the regional prosecutor’s office. Photos published by the agency showed rows of Easter cakes stacked inside a devastated building, covered with thick dust, while a huge hole was fallen in the wall behind them and rubble stacked on the floor.
Last Sunday, the Sumy strike, resulted in mass victims, was the second large -scale missile attack to win a civil life in just over a week. About twenty people, including nine children, died on April 4, while missiles hit the hometown of Zelenskyy, Kryvyi Rih.