The US most senior diplomat Marco Rubio has warned on Friday that Washington is prepared to “move one” if a peace deal does not progress “within days” as the Ukraine-Russia war is “not our war.”
The US Secretary of State said that they are ready to be engaged with peace talks “as long as it takes, but not indefinitely, not without progress,” the Kyiv Post reports.
Rubio told reporters at Le Bourget airport, France that the Paris talks was “constructive, very helpful” and signalled there will be another meeting next week.
Rubio told reporters, “We’ll have some more definitive answers about how close we are to actually making progress, but this isn’t going to go on forever.
“The Ukraine war is a terrible thing, but it’s not our war.”
He warned that the US President Donald Trump is ready to walk away, unless there is a peace deal “within days.”
Rubio said, “We came here yesterday to sort of begin to talk about more specific outlines of what it might take to end the war, to try to figure out very soon. And I’ll talk to you about a matter of days — not a matter of weeks, whether or not this is a war that can be ended.
“If it can, we’re prepared to do whatever we can. That’s to facilitate that and make sure that it happens, that it ends in a durable and just way.
“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, well, we’re done. …We have other priorities to focus on as well.”
The US Secretary of State said that there is some signs progress has been made, adding, “I thought we had a positive meeting yesterday.”
Rubio was asked about American security guarantees for Ukraine, he said, “We’ve heard about it, and it’s not an illegitimate desire. Every sovereign nation on earth has a right to defend itself.”
Rubio added that Ukraine “has to feel like it has the ability to defend itself from a future attack, from anyone.”
Rubio said, “we can fix [security guarantees] 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.”
The US Secretary of State added, “Obviously the Ukrainians have to go back home.
“They have to run it by their president. They have to take into account, you know, their views on all of this, and we hope to hear back from them very soon.”
