“It is not our war. We didn’t start it,”[Secretary of State Marco] Rubio said, adding that if a deal were not possible – with both sides still far apart – the US president was “probably at a point where he’s going to say, well, we’re done”. Trump felt “very strongly” about this, he said.” The Guardian
President says US may ‘take a pass’ on brokering agreement as Kyiv signs minerals memorandum ; Trump team reveals lack of expertise – and patience – as it threatens to abandon Ukraine peace talks,, according to The Guardian’s reporting.
(Timothy Snyder is the author of “On Tyranny“and is a professor of history and global affairs at Yale.)
“Trump declined to give a “specific number of days” for when the US would stop trying to negotiate a truce. “But quickly. We want to get it done.” Asked whether he was being “played” by Putin, Trump said: “Nobody’s playing me, I’m trying to help.”
”Speaking in Paris on Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Trump was still interested in a deal. But he added that the US president had many other priorities around the world and was willing to “move on” unless there were signs of progress.”
Diplomacy, it turns out, is hard. The 24 hours that Donald Trump promised he would need to halt the fighting in Ukraine have long since passed. And the administration has done little of the hard diplomatic work that was required to secure landmark deals like the Dayton agreement or the Camp David accords in the past.
There have been plenty of meetings: Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has spoken three times with Vladimir Putin, during which he has listened to the Kremlin leader’s thoughts on Ukraine for hours, and Rubio was on the phone with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and met with Ukrainian officials and European leaders in Paris on Thursday. “The Guardian”
There was always an expertise gap in the difficult negotiations over a ceasefire to the Russian war in Ukraine. Now the administration appears to have a patience gap and has signaled it is ready to walk away. Ukraine does not have that option.
