The State Department is poised to step away from its role as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine after the two sides remain "far apart" on a deal to end the war.
The Trump administration has spent the first 100 days trying to bring an end to the protracted war in Europe, marking a significant shift in U.S. policy from the previous administration, which prioritized supporting Ukraine, but has had little success in convincing Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off the war he started.
"I think we know where Ukraine is and we know where Russia is right now and where Putin is. They’re still far apart," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Hannity Thursday night. "They’re closer, but they’re still far apart. And it’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this."
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that the administration could pull back from the negotiating table if there's little progress being made, raising questions of who will lead the mediating efforts or if they will collapse altogether. The United States has already called on European countries to take a larger role in aiding Ukraine.
Hours earlier, the department’s top spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters that “we will not be the mediators” anymore.
After publication, Bruce clarified that her remarks were not intended to be a policy announcement,” rather she was reiterating the department’s previously acknowledged policy that they will not keep mediating without signs of progress soon.”
It's unclear if the U.S.'s decision to pull back from its mediating efforts will be part of a broader policy shift. Russia, which continues to make slow advances on the front lines, appears to be the side that would benefit more from the collapse of ceasefire talks, though Moscow is very unlikely to accomplish the maximalist goals it intended to from the start.
Trump has discussed the possibility of applying additional secondary sanctions on Russia, but that hasn't happened yet.
Earlier this week, the U.S. and Ukraine signed their long-awaited minerals deal, which ties the two countries together economically.
The deal establishes a 50/50 partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine via a limited liability company that will evenly split any royalties, licensing fees, or other payments from new natural resource projects in Ukraine, officials said. Some of that money would then be invested back into new projects in Ukraine, with the idea that economic benefits would reach both countries.
The deal will “generate long-term returns for both the American and Ukrainian people," according to a Trump administration official.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent led the U.S.'s effort to get this deal done, which was initially expected to be signed before the now-infamous Oval Office argument between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance on Feb. 28.
The U.S. has pushed Ukraine to agree to the minerals deal and ceasefire agreements, though the administration has not as clearly pushed Moscow to do the same. Instead, as the U.S. applied pressure to Ukraine, Russia began increasing its demands to end the war.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out many of Russia's conditions to get it to agree to a deal this week, including the international community recognizing Russian-annexed Ukrainian territory as its own, the cancellation of arrest warrants for Russian officials — Putin was among a handful of Russians charged by the International Criminal Court — and the "de-Nazifying" of Ukraine, which is likely a reference to removing the Zelensky government from power.
Earlier this week, Putin claimed the Russians would uphold a three-day ceasefire to coincide with the Victory Day commemorations. Zelensky argued that Putin's unilaterally announced cessation of hostilities was a ploy to manipulate the U.S. into believing it was open to ending the war.