Roving Periscope: US may drop out of Russia-Ukraine ‘peace deal’, says Rubio
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: One of US President Donald Trump’s pet projects in the last one year—to stop the ongoing, three-year-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine—may have become unviable on Friday with neither Moscow nor Kyiv evincing interest in going ahead, despite a partial Washington-Moscow deal last month in Saudi Arabia.
A frustrated US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Friday that the United States might soon “move on” from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if significant progress is not made in the coming days.
In fact, on Friday itself, the Kremlin declared that the 30-day moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, has “expired.”
Russia announced partial truce on March 18 following a call between Putin and US President Donald Trump, but both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of repeatedly breaking it.
“The month has indeed expired,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters, the media reported.
“As of this time, there have been no other instructions from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Putin.”
The short-lived moratorium was one of the few commitments Trump had wrangled from Russia in his attempt to broker a ceasefire in the three-year conflict. In fact, it was one of the pet planks during his presidential election campaign last year.
Even earlier, Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire put to him before.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was never serious about the moratorium and that Moscow was continuing to strike Ukraine’s energy targets “despite Putin’s words.”
The Trump administration has spent weeks trying to mediate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but its efforts have not ended the ongoing conflict.
Rubio said the US government aims to determine in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.
Speaking in Paris after a marathon day of high-stakes talks with Ukrainian and European officials, he, however, described these discussions as “constructive” and said they produced an initial framework for steps toward peace.
French officials also confirmed that a follow-up meeting, involving the same parties, is being planned for London early next week. Rubio said he could attend that meeting, emphasising the urgency of the situation.
“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters before leaving Paris.
Thursday’s talks in Paris marked the first time top American, Ukrainian, and European officials had gathered together to address the Ukraine war since President Donald Trump took office on January 20. The meetings come at a time when European leaders are increasingly worried about Trump’s apparent willingness to forge closer ties with Russia, and because of Washington’s reciprocal tariffs involving many countries, including the European Union.
Secretary Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have been leading the US diplomatic push for peace. Several rounds of negotiations have already taken place in Saudi Arabia, with Witkoff holding three separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Rubio.
However, Moscow has so far refused to agree to the comprehensive ceasefire proposal backed by Trump and supported by Ukraine. Russia is demanding an end to Ukraine’s mobilisation efforts and a halt to Western arms shipments—conditions that Ukraine has rejected.
