US President Donald Trump has said that Washington could abandon efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict if Moscow and Kiev don’t engage in negotiations. He added, however, the US still hopes to see the fighting come to an end.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump was asked to comment on remarks by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had suggested that the White House could walk away from efforts to broker a settlement.
“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,” Trump said, adding “We’re going to just take a pass, but hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Earlier on Friday, the secretary of state told journalists that the White House is still waiting to see if a peace deal is “doable.”
“We need to figure out here, now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio said.
Rubio refused to comment on what is being discussed, but called it a “broad framework.”
“Marco [Rubio] is right in saying we want to see it [the conflict] end,” Trump said, noting “I think we have a good chance of solving the problem.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed he wants a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible. Russia and the US have been engaged in negotiations since Trump took office in January. The two countries have held several rounds of high-level talks while Kiev and its Western backers have continued to push for escalation.
Moscow has maintained it is open to peace talks, provided its core security demands are addressed. Russia opposes any NATO presence on Ukrainian soil and has demanded that Kiev recognize Russia’s new borders and abandon its plans to join NATO or acquire nuclear weapons.
The Russian government, however, has said it will not accept a freeze of the conflict, which will only lead to renewed hostilities later on, citing Ukraine’s multiple violations of a US-mediated moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure as proof of Kiev’s untrustworthiness.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday the ongoing negotiations to secure peace in the Ukraine conflict are “difficult,” but Russia remains committed to resolving the crisis. He said there’s some progress but numerous challenging issues remain on the table.
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