The U.S. may be ready to “move on” from its efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine if there is no clear progress in the coming days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end,” Rubio told reporters in Paris after a gruelling day of talks among U.S., Ukrainian and European officials in Paris.
“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,” he said, adding that President Donald Trump “feels very strongly about that.”
His comments came after Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister and economy minister said that Kyiv and Washington signed a memorandum that is expected to bring both sides closer to clinching a minerals deal that will allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral wealth.
Yulia Svyrydenko said in a post on X late Thursday that it would pave the way for an economic partnership agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine, and establish an investment fund to help reconstruct the country that has been torn apart by Russia’s full-scale invasion since 2022.
Championed by Trump, the deal has stalled since February, when a meeting between the president and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Oval Office unraveled into a live-on-air clash.
Rubio did not mention the memorandum when he spoke after talks at Paris’ Élysée Palace with French President Emmanuel Macron that were also attended by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The encouraging reception in Paris to the U.S. framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement Thursday.
She added that Trump and the U.S. “have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace.”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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