'We’ve other priorities as well': Trump frustrated with Ukraine peace talks? Rubio drops a hint

The United States may soon abandon mediation for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

This is a sharp turnaround for President Donald Trump who had announced he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of assuming office.

Rubio on Friday said that the Trump administration would assess in the next few days whether a ceasefire is possible in the next few weeks. He said the Trump administration would abandon the efforts and move on to other foreign policy priorities if the conclusion is that it’s not doable

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on. 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. If it is, we’re in. If it’s not, then we have other priorities to focus on as well," said Rubio in Paris.

Rubio and Steve Witkoff, a special envoy of Trump, arrived in Paris on Thursday to hold talks with French, British, and Ukrainian officials regarding the war in Ukraine. This was the highest level of contact between Europe and the Trump administration regarding Ukraine.

Rubio went for pointed discussions, came out with ultimatum

Rubio said that they were in Paris to “begin to talk about more specific outlines of what it might take to end the war”. However, after their meetings, he said that Trump is probably going to end the peace initiative soon.

Rubio said, “If it’s not possible, if we’re so far apart that this is not going to happen then I think the president is probably at a point where he’s going to say we’re done.”

Echoing Trump, Rubio said that the war in Ukraine is not “our war” even though the United States has been supporting Ukraine. He said that the Trump administration does not desire to be involved too much in the conflict.

“President [Trump] has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to and end. We are now reaching a point when we need to decide and determine whether this is even possible or not. Which is why we’re engaging both sides,” said Rubio.

In Paris, officials from Ukraine, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany an “excellent exchange” and “a very strong strategic opportunity” to discuss the situation in Ukraine, according to President Emmanuel Macron’s office.

Rubio and Witkoff presented a US-authored outline of a peace plan that received an “encouraging reception” in the talks, according to the Department of State Department. No details were provided about the purported peace plan’s outline.

Following the talks in Paris with European and Ukrainian officials, Rubio held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and conveyed the same outline, as per the Department of the State. No details were provided about Russia’s reaction to the outline.

Rubio doesn’t mention Russia — as usual

In line with the Trump administration’s alignment with Russia, Rubio did not mention Russia in his remarks at all.

Even though it is Russia that started the war and has rejected all US-backed ceasefire proposal so far, Rubio did not censure Russia.

While Trump had always been friendly with Russia, he has completely realigned the United States with Russia in his second term. He has repeatedly claimed falsely that Ukraine started the ongoing war and has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator”.

While Trump has bashed as a warmonger for wanting to buy air defence systems, he has dismissed Russian attacks killing Ukrainian civilians as a “mistake” — even though Russian themselves have doubled down on such attacks and have not admitted to them being mistakes.

So far, the Trump administration has floated three ceasefire proposals. While Ukraine has accepted all of them, Russia has not accepted any. Yet it is Ukraine that finds itself under pressure from the Trump administration regularly to accept Russia’s maximalist demands.