Rubio Threatens to ‘Move On’ From Ukraine-Russia Talks ‘Within Days’ If No Progress Seen: ‘We Have Other Priorities’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is threatening to “move on” from talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war “within days,” saying the U.S. has “other really important things going on that deserve just as much if not more attention.”

Rubio made the startling comments in Paris after attending a meeting between officials from the U.S., Ukraine, and Europe seeking an outline of steps to end the three-year-old war.

When asked by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Gordon about a “framework” of a deal to end the war, Rubio said: “We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term.”

Here’s Rubio’s full response:

Well, I’m not going to tell you what the framework says because when you start negotiating these things through the media and so forth, they fall apart. And it’s a broad framework. It’s a framework that gets us into a position to see – look, there are going to be differences; there’s no – no one’s saying this can be done in 12 hours. But we want to see how far apart it is and whether those differences are – can even be narrowed, if it’s even possible to get movement within the period of time we have in mind.

So, we’ve talked about outlines with both sides. I thought we had positive meetings yesterday. Obviously, the Ukrainians have to go back home, they have to run it by their president, they have to take into account their views on all of this. And we hope to hear back from them very soon. But we need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term. Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on, from our perspective. The president feels very strongly about that. He 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.

So, this is important, but there are a lot of other really important things going on that deserve just as much if not more attention. So we want to do everything we can to be helpful. We had a good meeting yesterday. I thought the French, the British, the Germans were very constructive, were very helpful. We thanked them for hosting this, and hopefully we’ll have another meeting early next week at some point where we’ll have some more definitive answers about how close we are to actually making progress. But this isn’t going to go on forever.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that “Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.” after a tense Oval Office meeting during which Zelensky was told by President Donald Trump that “you don’t have the cards” without America’s involvement.

“I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S. How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war? This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on U.S. politics, and U.S. politicians,” Zelensky replied.

Trump said Monday that Ukraine picked a fight with Russia to start the war.

Another meeting between the nations is slated for next week in London.

Watch above via Fox News.