US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the Trump administration will decide this week whether to continue pursuing a negotiated settlement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or to turn its attention to other matters.
This week will be “very important,” Mr. Rubio said on the NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally if not more important in some cases.”
“But we want to see it happen,” he added. “There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic of course as well. We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”
Mr. Rubio did not give further details of the state of the talks.
It was not clear if the timeline he offered was meant to pressure Ukraine and Russia to agree to enter direct discussions toward a deal, or whether President Trump and his aides were seriously considering walking away.
In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, did not suggest any settlement was imminent. “We are ready to reach a deal,” he said. “But there are still some specific points — elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned.”
Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv last Thursday that killed at least 12 people, prompting unusually sharp criticism from Mr. Trump. Mr. Lavrov said in the interview, which was recorded on the day of the strikes, that Russia still had not agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day full cease-fire that the Ukrainians have said they accepted.
Mr. Rubio’s remarks came a day after Mr. Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the halls of the Vatican while both leaders were attending the funeral of Pope Francis. Aides posted photos of the two men sitting together in conversation in St. Peter’s Basilica.
It was the first time the two men had met in person since an explosive Oval Office meeting in February, when Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Mr. Zelensky in front of reporters, saying he had not shown sufficient gratitude.
Tensions flared over the winter and spring as Mr. Trump made statements favoring the perspective of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump has also said he wants to form economic partnerships with Russia, while also trying to press Ukraine into a deal with his administration on critical minerals extraction.
In meetings this month in Paris and London and in exchanges via allied channels, U.S. and Ukrainian officials, including Mr. Rubio, have discussed possible terms of a negotiated settlement involving Russia and traded proposals and counterproposals.
