US President Donald Trump has said the US will "take a pass" on brokering further Russia-Ukraine talks if Moscow or Kyiv "make it very difficult" to reach a peace deal,
BBC reports.
The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he was not expecting a truce to happen in "a specific number of days" but he wanted it done "quickly".
His comments came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US would abandon talks unless there were clear signs of progress within days.
"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".
This comes as Russian strikes on Ukraine continue, with two people reported killed and more than 100 injured in the north-eastern cities of Kharkiv and Sumy on Friday.
Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Russian troops have been advancing - albeit slowly - in eastern Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin has placed a number of conditions on any potential ceasefire.
When asked about a deal between Russian and Ukraine, Trump said: "We're talking about here people dying. We're going to get it stopped, ideally.
"Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say, 'You're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people,' and we're going to just take a pass."
Despite the Trump administration's initial confidence that it could secure a deal quickly, attempts to reach a full ceasefire have yet to materialise, with Washington blaming both sides.
