Kathmandu. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday threatened to abandon mediation if Russia and Ukraine do not come up with “concrete proposals”.
According to him, American patience with US President Donald Trump’s initial priorities is running out. Trump promised to end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House, but as he celebrates his 100th day in office, Rubio suggested the administration could quickly focus on other issues.
“We are at a point now where both sides need to make concrete proposals on how to end this conflict,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. “If there is no progress, we will withdraw as a mediator in this process.”
He said that was the message from Rubio. He said the final decision on whether to move forward with diplomacy would be up to Trump. President Trump on Tuesday signaled that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, still wants to make a peace deal with Ukraine.
When asked in an interview with ABC television whether Putin wants peace, Trump said, “I think he does.” Putin recently proposed a three-day ceasefire in Moscow next week to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
But he rejected a U.S. call for a Ukraine-backed 30-day ceasefire. The United States wants “not a three-day moment where you can celebrate something else – a complete, lasting ceasefire and an end to the conflict,” Bruce said.
It is still unclear whether Rubio is truly ready to turn the page or is simply trying to pressure the two countries. The United States has already prepared a framework proposal that Ukrainians feel is bowing to Russian demands.
Trump has suggested officially recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. That suggestion has been rejected by almost the entire world. “We all want this war to end fairly — without any rewards for Putin, especially without any land,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said via video conference on Tuesday at an event in Poland.
Russia has also not moved forward with the proposal, believing that Moscow now has the upper hand, both on the battlefield and diplomatically, as Trump is eager to make peace. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, tried to blame Zelensky and said Russia would continue to talk to the United States.
“Zelensky is determined to escalate the conflict, he is recklessly rejecting balanced peace proposals from the United States,” Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting. US diplomat John Kelly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that working within the US framework would benefit both sides. “Russia now has a great opportunity to achieve lasting peace,” he said. Trump, who criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for keeping Putin at bay during the February 2022 invasion, spoke by phone with the Russian leader and sent his business friend-turned-world ambassador Steve Witkoff to meet him.
Trump blamed Zelensky during a meeting at the White House on February 28. He and Vice President J.D. Vance accused the wartime leader of not showing gratitude for US weapons sent under Biden. Ukraine sought to quickly improve by supporting U.S. diplomatic efforts and seeking a deal that would allow the United States to control most of the country’s mineral resources.
“Recognizing Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea would invite further aggression from Moscow and Beijing,” U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday. “I have tried to give President Trump the space to negotiate a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is a shared goal for both of us.”
“While it is important to end this war, President Trump and his team have fatally mismanaged these negotiations, making concessions to Russia one after another, losing our influence and splitting the united front with our allies,” he said. Ukraine on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of seven villages in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. The villages were previously far from the frontline but are now at risk as Russian forces move closer. A ballistic missile hit a residential area in Kiev last week, the deadliest attack on the capital since the attack. Trump, who has said Putin would not invade Ukraine if he were in power in 2022, wrote on social media after the attack: “Vladimir, stop it.”
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