President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from formal peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
The United States will no longer indulge in shuttle diplomacy to bring the war between Ukraine and Russia to an end, according to the Department of State.
The Trump administration is changing “the methodology of how we contribute” to peace talks and will no longer “fly around the world at the drop of a hat” for meetings, said State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce, according to The Daily Telegraph.
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Ukraine and Russia must now present “concrete” proposals to end the war and should meet directly to reach a peace agreement, said Bruce.
Bruce further said, “We will continue to help, but we will no longer fly around the world as mediators in meetings. Now it is up to the two sides, the time has come when they must present and develop concrete ideas on how to end this conflict. It will be up to them.”
It is not clear if the US withdrawal from peace talks would also mean the stoppage of intelligence and military assistance to Ukraine.
The development comes days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump would conclude this week whether to continue working towards a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia or abandon the efforts and move on to other foreign policy priorities.
The abandonment of efforts to end the Russian war on Ukraine marks a spectacular failure of Trump who had boasted throughout the campaign that he would end the war within 24 hours of assuming office.
Trump walks out of peace efforts after Ukraine minerals deal
The US withdrawal from formal Ukraine-Russia peace talks comes just a day after Ukraine and the United States signed a minerals deal.
Ukraine had hoped that the deal would bind the interests of the Trump administration to those of Ukraine and would lead to a beneficial outcome. The understanding was also reflected by US officials. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said that the deal signalled to Russia that the Trump Administration is “committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term”.
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The abandonment of peace talks also come days after Ukraine rejected a peace proposal from Trump that would have served victory to Russia on a platter. Even as the proposal fulfilled some of the biggest Russian demands, Russia rejected the proposal and restated maximalist demands.
In recent days, Trump had repeated his frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladmir Putin for not accepting his peace proposals. While Trump had bashed Zelenskyy from the beginning, whom he had called a “dictator” and had suggested should be ousted, he had been suggesting lately that even Putin might be playing with him. However, he did not take any punitive measure against Russia.
So far, the United States has floated three ceasefire proposals. While Ukraine accepted all of them, Russia rejected all of them and instead placed a long list of maximalist demands on the table. Yet Trump kept bashing Zelenskyy over the weeks and briefly suspended military and intelligence aid well, but did not do anything about Russia. Instead, Trump has been exploring a trade deal with Russia.
