U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump will try to promote a Russia-Ukraine peace deal in a few days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be reached.
“We will continue this work for weeks and months in a row. So we need to make sure now that I'm talking about the days, whether that's feasible in the next few weeks,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting with European and Ukrainian leaders.
“The president feels very strong about it. He puts a lot of time and energy into it…it's important, but there are many other things that really matter and deserve a lot, even more attention.”
Rubio's warning comes among some signs of progress in conversations with Ukraine.
Trump said Thursday that he expects to sign a deal with Kiev next week that will bring the United States into Ukraine's minerals. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attempted to sign a mineral treaty in February after clashes with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office.
After Thursday's talks in Paris, Rubio said the U.S. peace framework received “encouraging reception”. Zelenskyy's office called the talks constructive and active.
A meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aims to end the signing of the mineral agreement, fell into chaos and yelled in the White House. Andrew Chang broke the moment that led to tense 10-minute exchanges, which made the relationship between the two countries and the possibility of a ceasefire agreement in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Photos provided by Reuters and Getty Images.
Rubio's comments on Friday highlighted the progress of the White House on the lack of progress to address the growing list of geopolitical challenges.
Trump promised to end the war within his first 24 hours in the White House during the election campaign. He chaired the inaugural claim, proposing a deal in April or May, as the barriers become increasingly shackled.
Rubio said he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after talking in Paris and told him they had established constructiveness and briefed him on “certain elements of the American peace framework.”
Rubio said the issue of U.S. security assurance is part of any deal that arose in the Paris negotiations and is not carried out in more detail.
Safety assurance is a problem, he said: “We can solve it in a way that everyone can accept,” but “we have a bigger challenge and need to figure out whether it is possible in the near term.”
It is clear that peace agreements are difficult to strike, but there needs to be signs that they will be done soon, he said.
“No one said that this can be done in 12 hours. But we wanted to see how far it is, and even narrow these differences, even if it's possible to exercise for a period of time that comes to our mind.”
Neither the French president nor the foreign ministry immediately stepped down from the request for comment.
