US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has threatened that the US will "abandon efforts" for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine if there are no clear signs "in the coming days." Rubio's statements confirm the differences that arose during the trilateral meeting between representatives of the US administration, several Ukrainian ministers, and European allies at the behest of President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.
Rubio also had a phone conversation on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to "share the same message that the US team has conveyed to Ukraine," as indicated by State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a statement.
Before leaving Paris, Rubio specified that Donald Trump remains interested in reaching an agreement in Ukraine, but warned that the president has "many other priorities" and is willing to move on if rapid progress is not made.
This is the strongest threat to date from the Trump administration to abandon efforts for a peace agreement in Ukraine, hours after the United States sided with Russia, Belarus, and North Korea in a vote against a UN General Assembly resolution that included two condemnations of Moscow's aggression.
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump claimed he could seal a peace agreement within 24 hours. His approach to Putin, through phone calls and repeated high-level contacts between Washington and Moscow, has had no effect so far.
Emmanuel Macron recently accused Russia of "mocking" the American peace proposal by intensifying its offensive in Ukraine. The French president viewed Thursday's meeting at the Elysee Palace positively and called for "convergence" between the American and European positions.
Ukraine accepted the American proposal for an unconditional ceasefire while continuing negotiations with Washington on a possible agreement on the exploitation of rare minerals in its territory. However, Moscow rejected the proposal and responded with the attack on the city of Sumy, which resulted in 35 civilian deaths and over a hundred injured.