The US will abandon trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs a truce can be reached, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned.
Rubio said the US wanted to help end the war but was willing to move on if there were no immediate signs of progress.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end,” Rubio said, adding that the US had “other priorities to focus on”.
The comments come just hours after Ukraine took the first step towards signing a minerals deal with Washington that intends to set up an investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Following a meeting with European leaders in Paris on Thursday, Rubio told reporters on Friday: “We need to determine very quickly now – and I’m talking about a matter of days – whether or not this is doable” in the short-term.
“If it’s not going to happen, then we’re just going to move on,” he said.
He said it was clear that a peace deal would be difficult to strike but there needed to be signs it could be done soon.
The comments follow Ukraine and the US signing a memorandum of intent on Thursday, published by the Ukrainian government, which states that the countries intend to establish an investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine as part of an economic partnership agreement.
The aim is to finalise the deal by 26 April, the memo says.
The document provides no details on natural resources, but previous leaks have suggested the deal has been extended beyond minerals to control of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as well as its oil and gas.
The US has so far resisted providing Kyiv with security guarantees to support any future ceasefire.
The memo said the “American people desire to invest alongside the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine” and the US and Ukraine “desire a lasting peace in Ukraine and a durable partnership between their two peoples and governments”.
Donald Trump’s public shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February had temporarily blown negotiations on a deal off course.
Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced the signing of the memorandum on X. Her post included photos of Svyrydenko and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signing separately.
“We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” Svyrydenko wrote.
The signing was conducted over an online call with Bessent, who said the details of the deal were still being worked out.
“It’s substantially what we’d agreed on previously. When the president [Zelensky] was here, we had a memorandum of understanding. We went straight to the big deal, and I think it’s an 80-page agreement and that’s what we’ll be signing,” he said.
The memo said technical discussions were held in Washington DC as recently as 11 and 12 April.
Trump also hinted at the deal during a press conference with Italian leader Giorgia Meloni.
“We have a minerals deal which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday… next Thursday. Soon. And I assume they’re going to live up to the deal. So we’ll see. But we have a deal on that,” he said.
The White House did not respond to a request for further details on contents of the agreement, Reuters news agency reports.
Previous reports indicated that an “investment fund” would be set up for Ukraine’s reconstruction and would be managed by Kyiv and Washington on “equal terms”.
Ukrainian negotiators have tried to resist Trump’s demands that a joint investment fund would pay back the US for previous military aid, but have seemingly accepted his claim that it would help the country recover after the war ends.
The White House argues the mere presence of US businesses would put off Russia from further aggression, but that did not exactly work when they invaded in 2022.
Zelensky has repeatedly called for the US to take a stronger stance in supporting Ukraine.
“A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine,” he said at a European leaders summit last month.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and top diplomat Marco Rubio in Paris.
He said they had “discussed the paths to a fair and lasting peace, including full ceasefire, multinational contingent, and security guarantees for Ukraine”.
Zelensky had been hoping to use the deal to secure a US security guarantee in his country in the event of a ceasefire deal with Russia.
However the plan was derailed in February by Zelensky and Trump’s heated clash at the White House.
The memorandum is a step towards a deal that would allow the US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, as well as oil and gas.
Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are in Ukraine.
Ukraine has 7% of Europe’s supplies of titanium, a lightweight metal used in the construction of everything from aeroplanes to power stations.
It is also home to a third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries.
Other elements found in Ukraine include beryllium and uranium, which are both crucial for nuclear weapons and reactors.–BBC
