The US will abandon efforts to end the war in Ukraine if it proves impossible to broker meaningful progress in the next several days, secretary of state Marco Rubio said as he departed Paris on Friday a day after meeting with President Emmanuel Macron of France.

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Rubio told reporters, adding that the Trump administration would decide “in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks”.

It was not clear from Rubio’s remarks whether he meant that the US would merely abandon its effort to reach a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine or abandon Washington’s commitments to Ukraine altogether.

But his remarks ratcheted up pressure on both sides to end the war and appeared intended to inject urgency into European efforts to prod Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, towards compromise. While the US is Russia’s chief interlocutor in the negotiations, Europe has far greater sway over Zelensky. President Trump said on Thursday that he was “not a big fan” of the Ukrainian leader.

Rubio said Trump “has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly making efforts to bring this war to an end. We are now reaching a point when we need to decide and determine whether this is even possible or not”.

High-level talks on Thursday between American, European and Ukrainian officials were the first of their kind, intended to bring “convergence” between views of the war in Washington and European capitals. Rubio said the conversations had been constructive, but it appeared clear that Trump was losing patience.

“It is not our war. We didn’t start it,” Rubio said. “The US has been helping Ukraine for the past three years and we want it to end, but it’s not our war.”

Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, have led the American diplomacy aimed at ending the war, which has festered for more than three years. Witkoff has met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia multiple times and said he was trying to develop a “friendship, a relationship” with the Russian leader.

But Putin has baulked, setting various conditions even for a 30-day ceasefire. The Russian bombardment of Ukraine continues.

The officials who took part in the Paris talks have agreed to meet next week in London, and Rubio indicated he might participate.

He said he hoped Europeans would remain engaged in the efforts to secure a peace in Ukraine. Putin’s demands have been rejected outright by Ukraine.

New York Times News Service