US could walk away from Ukraine peace talks in days, warns Marco Rubio

Secretary of state’s remarks come after Washington and Kyiv signed ‘memorandum of intent’ for minerals deal and reconstruction fund.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, left, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Germany's Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gunter Sautter look at the Versailles Treaty before high-level talks to discuss Ukraine and its security in Paris on Thursday. Picture: AP

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the the Trump administration may be ready to “move on” from efforts for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is not progress in the coming days.

“We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Mr Rubio said as he left Paris after a marathon day of landmark talks among US, Ukrainian and European officials.

“If it is, we’re in. If it’s not, then ... we have other priorities to focus on as well. The United States has been helping Ukraine over the last three years, and we want it to end, but it’s not our war.”

France hosted high-level talks Thursday to discuss Ukraine and its security, the first time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration that top American, Ukrainian and European officials are known to have met together to discuss an end to the war. The meetings came as European concerns grow about Mr Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia.

Mr Rubio said the discussions had been constructive and produced an outline for steps toward peace. French officials said a new meeting in the same format is expected in London in the coming days. Mr Rubio said he could join that meeting, and it’s expected early in the week.

Mr Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have helped lead US efforts to seek peace. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia. Mr Witkoff has met three times with Mr Putin, Mr Rubio said.

Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Mr Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.

Mr Rubio’s comments came as Kyiv announced Ukraine’s prime minister will visit Washington next week for talks with top US officials aimed at clinching a long-fraught minerals and resources deal by April 26, according to a memorandum released on Friday.

Kyiv and Washington had planned to sign a deal on extracting Ukraine’s strategic minerals weeks ago, but a clash between presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in February temporarily derailed work on the agreement.

Mr Trump wants the deal - designed to give the US royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals - as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

According to a copy of a one-page “memorandum of intent” signed by both countries, the two sides “aim” to complete discussions by April 26 and sign the final agreement “as soon as possible”.

“Ukrainian Prime Minister (Denys) Shmygal will visit Washington, DC the week of April 21, 2025, to meet with US Treasury Secretary (Scott) Bessent and lend high-level support to the conclusion of technical discussions,” the document, published by the Ukrainian government Friday, stated.

“Negotiating teams are expected to report on the progress by April 26, 2025, with the aim of completing discussions by that date and signing as soon as possible,” it added.

US officials say boosting American business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia from future aggression in the event of a ceasefire.

Kyiv is pushing for concrete military and security guarantees as part of any deal to halt the three-year war.

A previous version of the framework agreement outlined plans for a jointly owned and managed investment fund between the US and Ukraine, intended to support the reconstruction of Ukraine’s economy.

Mr Trump also mentioned the deal during an Oval Office press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“We have a minerals deal which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday... next Thursday. Soon. And I assume they’re going to live up to the deal. So we’ll see. But we have a deal on that,” he said.

However he accused Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky of “not doing the greatest job” at resolving the war with Russia.

“I don’t hold Zelensky responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” the President said. “I’m not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job, OK? I am not a big fan.”

Earlier, Mr Zelensky accused US envoy Steve Witkoff of “spreading Russian narratives” after he suggested a peace deal with Russia hinged on the status of Ukraine’s occupied territories.

Mr Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg last Friday, his third meeting with the Russian leader in two months as US President Donald Trump intensified efforts to broker a ceasefire in the three-year war.

“I believe that Mr Witkoff has taken on the strategy of the Russian side. I think it is very dangerous, because he is consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, spreading Russian narratives,” Mr Zelensky told journalists.

“I don’t see him as having a mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories, because our territories belong to our people, not only to us, but to future Ukrainians. So I don’t understand what he is talking about at all,” he added.

Mr Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that a peace settlement hinged on “so-called five territories” – the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea, that Russia claims to have annexed.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, centre, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AP

The Kremlin wants its claims over the regions to be recognised as part of any peace deal, a proposal that Ukraine has baulked at. Moscow does not fully control any of them except for Crimea, which it seized in 2014.

Mr Zelensky’s comments came as top US, European and Ukrainian officials met in Paris on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the rare talks as a “very important occasion for convergence” as Kyiv’s allies seek to rekindle stalled ceasefire talks amid transatlantic tensions.

“I think everybody wants to get peace for sure, and a robust and sustainable peace,” Mr Macron said.

Donald Trump’s push to end three years of fighting has not borne fruit so far and after Mr Putin refused to agree to a complete truce despite multiple efforts to engage him.

Mr Macron has taken the lead in seeking to forge a co-ordinated European response to defending Ukraine, both during the current conflict and in its eventual aftermath, after Mr Trump shocked the world by opening direct talks with Russia.

Russia’s strikes, which have recently killed dozens of people including children in Ukraine’s cities of Sumy and Kryvyi Rig, show how the war is taking a hefty toll despite a series of diplomatic efforts.

“Arrived in Paris with one goal in mind: secure real, practical solutions to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” Rubio said on X.

Earlier Thursday, Mr Zelensky urged the allies meeting in Paris to lean on Russia to agree to a ceasefire.

“Russia uses every day and every night to kill. We must put pressure on the killers,” he said on Telegram.

Mr Zelensky also said Ukraine had “finally” received information that China was supplying weapons to Russia.

With AFP