Trump threatens to abandon Ukraine negotiations amid stalled peace talks
US President Donald Trump has said that the United States would disengage from negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine-Russia war within a matter of days if the two sides do not make substantial progress.
Trump said on Thursday that Washington would “take a pass” on brokering a peace agreement between the parties.
Trump warned both sides that a decision to abandon the talks could come “very shortly.”
“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ – and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
“No specific number of days, but quickly. We want to get it done,” he added.
Trump promised to end the war within 24 hours of taking office but has little to show for his efforts so far.
His comments came hours after Kiev announced it has signed a memorandum with the US over a minerals deal.
However, significant details of the minerals deal remain unclear, including whether Kiev has agreed to a White House demand that it “pays back” the cost of earlier military assistance.
Ukraine is set to sign a deal next week in Washington that would give the United States sweeping access to its mineral resources.
Having failed to arrange a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington needed to figure out soon whether a ceasefire was “doable in the short term.”
“Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” he told reporters.
Rubio’s remarks were made after he met European officials in Paris on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire. European powers have been seeking a seat at the table in the negotiations.
He said the talks had launched a “positive process.”
The US administration’s rapprochement quest with Russia has alarmed Kiev and its allies, and driven a wedge between the United States and its European allies.
Asked if he was being “played” by Russia, Trump said, “My whole life has been one big negotiation, and I know when people are playing us and I know when they’re not.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a joint proposal by the US and Ukraine for a full and unconditional ceasefire and has placed a number of conditions on any potential ceasefire.
Moscow has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.
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