Trump says he will "let the Ukraine deal slide" if the parties "make it difficult."

BarcelonaThe United States is adding pressure to Ukraine and saying that if negotiations drag on, they will stop seeking an agreement. "Ideally, we'll get there. But if for some reason either side makes it very difficult, we'll let it go. I hope we don't have to," President Donald Trump told reporters this Friday during the presentation of the new administrator of Medicare. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed this morning in Paris, where he warned that if an agreement isn't feasible "within days," Washington will stop mediating and focus on "other priorities." "If we can't end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on to something else," he emphasized.

A word of calculated ambiguity: it's unclear whether Rubio means the United States will abandon efforts to achieve the promised 30-day truce between Ukraine and Russia, or whether he's referring more generally to abandoning any commitment to Kiev and letting Putin dictate the terms of an archbishop. Either way, the message puts pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European partners to agree to an agreement that doesn't suit them, as Trump doesn't seem to have any intention of putting pressure on Moscow. Rubio asserted that Trump "has spent 87 days at the highest levels of his administration repeating efforts to end this war. We are now reaching the point where we must decide if it's even possible to end it." Cash or belt. And Rubio has washed his hands of it: "This is not our war; we didn't start it."

The Kremlin has responded as if it knows it has the upper hand: they are in no rush to reach a ceasefire. Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, met three times with Russian President Vladimir Putin and declared that he wants to build a friendship with the Russian strongman. Putin has not budged on the ceasefire offer and has continued bombing Ukrainian cities, attacking civilians, as in the Sumi bombing, in which 34 Ukrainians died on Monday, most of whom were traveling on a bus in the city center. Asked by reporters whether Moscow plans to respond to Trump's ceasefire proposal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off the question with a "it's not that simple" response, saying that Russia wants an agreement that "secures our own interests" and that "very difficult discussions" remain. The energy deal expired last week, and he has not committed to renewing it.

Kiev has not reacted, but it is known that if the United States ends up abandoning the negotiations, the agreement that would allow Washington to exploit Ukraine's strategic minerals would also be up in the air. the agreement, which de facto would commit Washington to the defense of Ukraine.

Rubio made these statements at the end of the two-day summit in Paris, where he met with Ukrainian and European representatives. Rubio praised European efforts: "I think the United Kingdom, France, and Germany can help us, move things forward, and bring us closer to a resolution," he said. He also welcomed the British and French willingness to send troops to oversee compliance with a hypothetical agreement. But he also said that Washington is running out of patience. Trump, he asserted, "has already devoted a lot of time and energy" to the issue, and there are "other important things happening that deserve as much or more attention."

A Message of Optimism

Although the participants at the Paris summit sought to convey a message of optimism, there appears to have been no significant progress in recent weeks toward an agreement acceptable to Kiev and Moscow. Rubio has relayed the content of the talks with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and French President Emmanuel Macron has done the same with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the only thing that has really changed is that the United States has agreed to give the Europeans a seat in the negotiations. Next week, Americans, Europeans, and Ukrainians will meet again in London.