Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May, as obstacles mounted.
Rubio said he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the Paris talks and had told him they had been constructive, and also briefed him on “some of the elements of” the US peace framework.
Rubio said the issue of US security guarantees as part of any deal came up in the talks in Paris, without going into greater detail.
Security guarantees were an issue “we can fix in sort of … in a way that’s acceptable to everyone”, he said, but “we have bigger challenges that we need to figure out, whether it’s even possible within the short term”.
He said it was clear that a peace deal would be difficult to strike, but there needed to be signs that it could be done soon.
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“There’s no one saying this can be done in 12 hours. But we want to see how far apart it is and whether those differences can even be narrowed, if it’s even possible to get movement within the period of time we have in mind,” Rubio said.
The meetings came as European concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia.
Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have helped lead US efforts to seek peace. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff had met three times with Putin, Rubio said.
Moscow has in effect refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilisation efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.
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Since then, Russia has stepped up attacks on civilian infrastructure while reducing its strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities.
On Friday morning, a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, killed one person and injured 57 more, including five children. The attack damaged 15 apartment buildings, an educational institution and a civilian enterprise, emergency services said.
Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry dismissed as “groundless” an accusation by Zelensky that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia.
Despite maintaining close economic ties with Russia during Moscow’s three-year war in Ukraine, China has sought to project an image of neutrality and denies any involvement in the war.
Friday’s disclaimer followed Zelensky’s remarks at a press conference the previous day that China was supplying weapons and gunpowder to Russia, while also accusing it of producing weapons on Russian territory.
China has never made lethal weapons available to any party to the Ukraine crisis, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news conference.
“China’s position on the Ukrainian issue has always been clear,” Lin said. “It has been actively committed to promoting a ceasefire and ending the conflict, as well as encouraging peace talks.”
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