U.S. will walk away from Russia-Ukraine peace effort if either side too difficult, Trump says
CBC
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday "we will take a pass" on trying to resolve the war in Ukraine if either Russia or Ukraine makes it too difficult to end the conflict.
Trump told reporters, however, that he did not want to say he was walking away from the talks, adding that he still believed there is a good chance to end the conflict.
"It's coming to a head right now," he said.
Trump's comments come after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the president will walk away from trying to broker a peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be reached.
"We're not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end. So we need to determine very quickly now, and I'm talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks," Rubio said in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders.
"The president feels very strongly about that. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this.... This is important, but there are a lot of other really important things going on that deserves just as much, if not more attention."
Rubio's warning came amid signs of some progress in U.S. talks with Ukraine.
Trump said on Thursday he expected to sign a deal with Kyiv next week that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's minerals. An attempt to sign a minerals pact in February fell apart after Trump and Vice-President JD Vance clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
After the talks in Paris on Thursday — the first substantive, high level and in-person negotiations on Trump's peace push that have included European powers — Rubio said a U.S. peace framework received an "encouraging reception." Zelenskyy's office called the talks constructive and positive.
Rubio's comments on Friday underline mounting frustrations in the White House over a lack of progress in attempts to settle a growing list of geopolitical challenges.
Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May, as obstacles mounted.
Rubio said he spoke with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov after the Paris talks and told him they had been constructive. He also briefed him on "some of the elements of" the U.S. peace framework.
He said the issue of U.S. security guarantees as part of any deal came up in the talks in Paris, without going into greater detail.
Rubio said security guarantees was an issue "we can fix in sort of in a way that's acceptable to everyone," but "we have bigger challenges that we need to figure out, whether it's even possible within the short term."
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