Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state and temporary national security adviser, has indicated that the White House will scale back its role in peace negotiations over the war in Ukraine.
Rubio said the US was not abandoning peace efforts and that it would be ready to help “if we can”, but that the Russian and Ukrainian sides were “still far apart” and President Trump has to decide how much time to dedicate to the process.
“So the president’s tried. Look, we have gotten closer … we kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop. The problem is, those two positions are still a little far apart,” he told Fox News’s Hannity programme.
Marco Rubio, left, and Mike Waltz, the former national security adviser, represented the US at peace talks in Saudi Arabia in March
SAUL LOEB/REUTERS
“We’re not going to give up on it, in the sense that we’re not going to be ready to help if we can. But there does come a point where the president has to decide how much more time at the highest levels of our government do you dedicate it, when maybe one of the two sides or both aren’t really close enough, when we have got so many, I would argue, even more important issues going on around the world, not that a war in Ukraine is not important.
Naming China, the Middle East and Iran as other pressing concerns, Rubio added: “So, at some point in time, it either has to be something that can happen or we will need to move on. That will be a decision the president will have to make.”
The comments came amid a recent shift in tone on America’s role as a peace mediator in the war, after a month in which both Trump and JD Vance, the vice-president, threatened to walk away from negotiations if progress was not made.
Tammy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, said on Thursday “we will no longer fly around the world at the drop of a hat” for discussions.
• What happens if US walks away from Ukraine-Russia peace deal?
She said Kyiv and Moscow must come up with “concrete” proposals for ending the conflict and start discussions between themselves.
Bruce told reporters: “We will continue to help, but we will no longer fly around the world as mediators in meetings. Now it is up to the two sides, the time has come when they must present and develop concrete ideas on how to end this conflict. It will be up to them.”
The State Department had said on Tuesday that it would quit its mediator role if it did not see “concrete proposals”.
Vance told Fox News that it was up to Russia and Ukraine “to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict”.
JD Vance praised President Trump’s efforts but admitted the war was unlikely to end soon
PRAKASH SINGH/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
He added: “It’s not going anywhere … it’s not going to end any time soon.”
Speaking on Thursday night, Rubio also lauded the president’s efforts at bringing the two sides to the table.
“Who’s the only leader in the world that can talk to both sides and hopefully bring them to a deal? That’s President Trump and that’s what he’s tried to do,” he said.
“For 100 days, he has done efforts to bring about peace, to end the killing, to end the dying, to end the destruction,” he said.
Pressed on whether the prospect of peace was “close”, Rubio added: “I think we know where Ukraine is and we know where Russia is right now and where Putin is. It’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this.”
Rubio’s assessment appeared at odds with Trump’s insistence ten days ago that a deal was close. Trump posted on April 23: “We are very close to a Deal, but the man with “no cards to play” [President Zelensky] should now, finally, GET IT DONE. I look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!”
Asked on April 24 if he would consider more sanctions for Russia, Trump said “if the bombs keep falling”, and suggested a deadline for US peace efforts, saying: “I’d rather answer that question in a week. I want to see if we can have a deal.”
The Kremlin this week rejected a US peace proposal because it did not grant international recognition to territory occupied by its troops. Ukraine has repeatedly refused to accept the Russian annexation of any of its territory, saying Putin should not be rewarded for starting the conflict.
It came as Russian air defences intercepted 89 Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea and 23 more over the Black Sea, according to the country’s defence ministry.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed leader in Sevastapol, said his forces had repelled “the most massive combined attack” on the city so far this year.