US threatens to withdraw from Ukraine talks if no progress

PARIS: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington could soon exit efforts to reach a Ukraine ceasefire if it decided peace was not “doable”, after meeting European and Ukrainian officials in Paris.

European powers have been seeking a seat at the table since US President Donald Trump’s shock decision to open talks with Russia to end the three-year-old war, which started with Moscow’s 2022 invasion.

But Trump’s push for peace has stumbled, with Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuffing a complete truce.

“The United States has been helping Ukraine over the last three years, and we want it (the conflict) to end, but it’s not our war,” Rubio said.

“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 told reporters at the Le Bourget airport outside Paris.

Rubio in Paris to meet Macron on Ukraine war

“We have other priorities to focus on as well.”

Rubio said European officials had been “very helpful and constructive with their ideas” during talks in Paris on Thursday, which he attended with US envoy Steve Witkoff.

“We’d like them to remain engaged… I think the UK and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this,” he said, ahead of a similar meeting planned for “early next week” in London.

‘European sanctions’

Ukraine said Friday that its prime minister would visit Washington next week for talks with US officials aimed at clinching a long-fraught minerals and resources deal.

Trump wants the deal as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

An agreement would be designed to give the United States royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals.

Rubio had said late Thursday in a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that “peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement”, the US State Department said.

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Rubio said he hoped European nations would consider lifting sanctions against Russia over the war.

“Many of them are European sanctions that we can’t lift, if that were ever to be part of a deal,” he said.

European countries last month agreed to ramp up rather than scale down sanctions on Russia.

France and Britain have sought a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine during the conflict and in any ceasefire, after Trump opened talks with Putin.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the Paris talks had made a breakthrough because the United States, Ukraine and European ministers had “gathered around the same table”.

He said the United States “has understood that a just and sustainable peace… can only be achieved with the consent and contribution of Europeans.”

‘Little problem’

Russia’s strikes, which have recently killed dozens of people including children in Ukrainian cities, have increased pressure for new diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

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Witkoff said this week that Putin was open to “permanent peace” after talks with him in Saint Petersburg, their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House in January.

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

Putin last month rejected a US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire, after Kyiv gave its backing to the idea.

Putin also suggested Zelensky be removed from office, sparking an angry response from Trump who said he was “very angry” with the Russian leader.

Celia Belin, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Rubio’s latest comments were “not surprising”.

“Trump wants to get rid of the Ukraine issue,” she told AFP.

“He wants to renew a strategic partnership with Moscow and he doesn’t want a ‘little problem’ like Ukraine getting in the way.”