President Trump warned he could walk way from efforts to end the war in Ukraine if a deal can’t be found soon, as Russia said a one-month pause on targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure had ended.
“If for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, you’re foolish,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office. “You’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re going to just take a pass. But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Trump on Russia Ukraine negotiations: If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult we’re just going to say you are foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people and we’re going to just take a pass. pic.twitter.com/6wCj9Z72cg
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 18, 2025
While Trump did not say he has a “specific number of days” in mind by which he wanted to see an agreement before walking away, he needed to see quick progress.
“I know when people are playing us, and I know when they’re not,” Trump said. “And I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it. And I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides.”
His comments followed a meeting of US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, with representatives from France, Germany and the UK in Paris on Thursday, where the US indicated its aim was to secure a full ceasefire in Ukraine within weeks, according to people familiar.
Following the meeting, Rubio said the US needed to see in “a matter of days” whether a deal was “doable in the short term…. because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio told reporters at Le Bourget airport outside of Paris on Friday morning, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.
Rubio also said the European nations could help “move the ball” to get a resolution and that their ideas had been “very helpful and constructive.”
“We had a good meeting yesterday,” he added. “But this isn’t going to go on forever.” The war in Ukraine “has no military solution to it” as “neither side has some strategic capability to end this war quickly”, Rubio said.
Trump, who predicted on the campaign trail that he could quickly secure a ceasefire, hits the 100-day mark of his second stint in the White House on April 30.
Trump “has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this, and there are a lot of things going on in the world right now that we need to be focused on,” Rubio told reporters. “There are a lot of other really important things going on that deserve just as much if not more attention.”
Bloomberg reports that Thursday’s talks in Paris also included a meeting between Witkoff and French president Emmanuel Macron and were attended by Ukrainian officials. US officials indicated they expected to make significant progress soon, and the participants agreed to work toward that. National security advisers and negotiators from Germany, France, the US and the UK plan to gather again in London next week to follow up on their discussions.
More importantly, Bloomberg also reported that the US presented its allies with details of its peace plan to bring the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to an end. The proposal, outlined during a meeting in Paris on Thursday, includes easing sanctions on Russia, as well as terminating Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO. The roadmap would effectively freeze the conflict and leave former Ukrainian territories that are part of Russia under Moscow’s control.
An official told Bloomberg that the proposal still had to be discussed with Kiev, which will certainly balk, adding that the plan would not actually amount to a definitive conflict settlement as Kiev’s European backers would not recognize the territories as Russian.
The meetings came almost a week after Witkoff traveled to St. Petersburg, where he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for almost five hours. He described the conversation as “compelling,” saying they discussed steps that could end the war and perhaps lead to business opportunities for Russia as well, including dropping sanctions.
The US has presented its allies with details of its peace plan to bring the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to an end, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing European officials familiar with the matter.
The proposal, outlined during a meeting in Paris on Thursday, reportedly includes easing sanctions on Russia, as well as terminating Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO. The roadmap would effectively freeze the conflict and leave former Ukrainian territories that are part of Russia under Moscow’s control, the sources suggested.
European officials have attempted to influence the outcome of peace efforts kicked off by the Trump administration, especially after being sidelined during recent bilateral talks between Russia and the US.
So far they are failing: a follow up report from Bloomberg on Friday afternoon confirmed that the US is prepared to recognize Russian control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv. The concession is the latest signal that Trump is eager to rush through a ceasefire deal, and comes as he and Marco Rubio suggested on Friday that the administration is prepared to move on from its peace-brokering efforts unless progress is made quickly.
Still, the proposal will promptly be rebuffed not only by Ukraine but also by Western European leaders. Crimea was taken by the Kremlin in 2014 following the CIA/western-orchestrated overthrow of then president Yanukovich in the Maidan coup, Russia subsequently held a referendum to validate its control but the international community has resisted recognizing the peninsula as Russian to avoid legitimizing the annexation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly said he will not cede territory to Moscow, and so have European leaders. Doing so risks undermining international laws and treaties prohibiting the taking of land through use of force.
The only winner from the Trump proposal would be Vladimir Putin, who has long sought international recognition of Russian sovereignty in Crimea. Putin so far has refused to agree to Trump’s proposal for a broad peace deal, and the latest concession by Trump signals he would be willing to tip the scales in Russia’s favor in order to achieve a peace.
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the pace of negotiations with Russia, which has so far declined to accept his proposal for a truce in Ukraine as a starting-point for broader peace talks. Trump has also periodically blamed Zelenskiy for the war which was the ultimate outcome of the 2014 Maidan presidential coup.
“President Trump has been clear he wants this conflict brought to a swift, peaceful resolution,” White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said in a statement.
Also on Friday the Kremlin said an order to pause strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days had expired, with no updated instructions in place.
“The month has indeed expired,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “At the present time there have been no other instructions from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”
Putin agreed to limit attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days during a March 18 phone call with Trump, an outcome that fell well short of the White House’s aim for a total halt to the fighting over that same timeframe. In the following days, Ukraine and Russia each accused the other of breaking the accord.
Separately, Trump told reporters on Thursday that a deal on critical minerals that he’s demanded with Ukraine is expected to be signed on April 24.
His comments suggests both sides have agreed to the contours of an accord governing postwar plans to exploit Ukraine’s mineral deposits and rebuild its infrastructure.
The deal would grant the US first claim on profits transferred into a special reconstruction investment fund to be controlled by Washington. In negotiations, Zelensky – who was kicked out of the White House in early March when the minerals deal blew up after a heated exchange in the Oval Office between Zelensky and JD Vance – has pressed for better terms and refused to recognize past US assistance as debt, demand all money sent to it from the Biden administration be treated as a forgivable grant.
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