Paris: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the US may be ready to “move on” from efforts for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days.
Speaking in Paris after a marathon day of landmark talks among US, Ukrainian and European officials, Rubio said the discussions had been constructive and produced an outline for steps toward peace.
French officials said a new meeting in the same format is expected in London in the coming days. Rubio said he could join that meeting, and it’s expected early in the week.
“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters upon departure.
After weeks of efforts by the Trump administration to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine have failed to bring an end to the fighting, Rubio said the US administration wants to decide “in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.”
France hosted high-level talks Thursday to discuss Ukraine and its security, the first time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration that top American, Ukrainian and European officials are known to have met together to discuss an end to the war. The meetings came as European concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia.
Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have helped lead US efforts to seek peace. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff has met three times with Putin, Rubio said.
Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilisation efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia kept up a series of deadly strikes on Ukrainian cities, according to officials there, wounding scores of civilians days after missiles killed at least 34 during Palm Sunday celebrations in the northern city of Sumy.
One person died and over 60 others were hurt as Russia hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, early in the day, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said cluster munitions struck a “densely populated” neighbourhood four times.
Russian drones also targeted a bakery in Sumy, less than a week after the deadly Palm Sunday strike there, killing a customer and wounding an employee, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Photos released by the agency showed rows of Easter cakes stacked inside a devastated building, covered in thick dust, as a huge hole gaped in the wall behind them and rubble piled up on the floor.
Last Sunday’s strike on Sumy, resulting in mass casualties, was the second large-scale missile attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week. Some 20 people, including nine children, died April 4 as missiles struck Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
On Thursday, a Russian drone strike killed three civilians and wounded dozens more in Dnipro, a city in southeastern Ukraine, local authorities said. The attack came as a Ukrainian delegation sought security pledges from European powers during a high-level meeting in Paris that was joined by Rubio and Witkoff.
Regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said one child died and five others were wounded in the Dnipro strike.
AP
