Paris (AP) – Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States could “pass” Russia-Ukraine Peace Agreement If there is no progress in the coming days, after months of effort has failed to end Fights.
He spoke in Paris after historical discussions between us, Ukrainian and European officials 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 now reach a point where we have to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told journalists. “Because if this is not the case, then I think we are just going to move on. This is not our war. We have other priorities on which we are concentrating.”
He said that the American administration wanted to decide “in a few days”.
Rubio’s comments have intensified pressure on both sides to achieve a peace agreement, even if the United States and Ukraine have progressed on a mineral agreement The fact that Trump sought to recover billions of dollars of military aid that Washington sent kyiv since the large -scale invasion of Russia in February 2022.
They also indicated that the road to a full truce will be long and bogged down with restraint, despite American president Donald Trump, saying several times on the campaign track that he could end the war in one day. Trump said last month that he was “Being a little sarcastic” when he said it.
On Friday, American vice-president JD Vance took a more optimistic tone in Rome, before Interviews with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“We think we have interesting things to report, of course privately,” he said. On negotiations, “I will not prejudge them, but we feel optimistic that we can, hope, put an end to this war, this very brutal war.”
He did not give more details.
Progress on the agreement of minerals
Rubio’s comments came while the United States and Ukraine are approaching a long delayed transaction granting access to the United States to Ukraine vast mineral resourceswhich was linked to President Donald Trump’s surge of peace. Trump said on Thursday: “We have a mineral agreement.” The Minister of the Economy of Ukraine said on Friday that the two countries had signed a memorandum of understanding before a possible agreement more complete 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.
The framework of the mineral agreement had stopped the following February A controversial oval office meeting Between Trump, US vice-president JD Vance and the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Negotiations have since resumed.
Russia says “open to dialogue”
Despite an apparent impatience with peace efforts, Rubio described Thursday’s Paris talks. He 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 have emerged, but would not say how Lavrov reacted.
Friday, during Rubio’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that “fairly complex” negotiations were taking place between Russia and the United States, he had not given details but that no direct talks between Trump and 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.
Peskov also pointed out that a limited cease-fire of 30 days supported by Washington that Russia and Ukraine adopted last month in principle have now excited, but did not say what steps could take Moscow.
While expressing their desire to implement the agreement, the parties at war issuing contradictory declarations Shortly after their separate talks with American officials in Saudi Arabia. They differ at the start time of stopping strikes and presumed offenses to the building to the other side.
After weeks of tensions with European allies, Rubio said that European negotiators have proven useful. “The United Kingdom and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this subject.”
European concerns increase Trump’s preparation to get closer to Russia. The talks in Paris were the first time that the inauguration of Trump that the best 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 discussed 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 after the conclusion of a peace agreement.
Rubio and the presidential envoy Steve Witkoff helped lead American efforts to seek peace, and Witkoff met three times with Putin, said Rubio. Several cycles of Negotiations took place in Saudi Arabia.
Moscow has indeed refused to accept a complete ceasefire that Trump pushed and Ukraine approved. Russia has made it condition Stop in the mobilization efforts of Ukraine and western weapons supplies, which are requests rejected by Ukraine.
Ukrainian cities attacked
Meanwhile, Russia continued A series of fatal strikes in Ukrainian citiesAccording to officials there, the dozens of civilians’ injuries after the missiles killed at least 34 years in the Sunday’s Sunday celebrations in the city in northern Sumy.
One person died and 98 others, including six children, were injured while Russia struck Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, early on the day, his mayor Ihor Terekhov reported on Friday. He said that cluster’s ammunition struck a “densely populated” district four times.
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 the missiles struck Birthplace of Zelenskyy de Kryvyi Rih.
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Arhirova reported in Kyiv, Ukraine. Illia Novikov in kyiv, Joanna Kozlowska in London and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
