The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has released a warning this Friday from Paris: if Ukraine and Russia do not show their commitment to advance negotiations in the next few days, USA could leave the conversations for a high fire.
“We need to determine now, in a matter of days, if this peace agreement is viable in the short term, because if it is not, then we will continue with something else.” Those have been the words of Rubio, who together with Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, has traveled to the French capital to “hold conversations with her European counterparts” about Ukraine.
The Secretary of State has described these meetings as “positive” in statements to the media, in which he has also stressed that the Trump administration will not continue with the “efforts” for “weeks or months.”
It is not the first time that the Trump government has shown its impatience with the conversations in the two countries. In recent months the American leader has insisted several times to Putin to stop attacks in Ukraine: “Russia must act,” he wrote in Truth Social.
“The president has a very firm opinion about it [de las negociaciones]. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this, it is important, but there are many other important things in progress that deserve the same attention, or even more, ”Rubio added this Friday.
To try to get out of the stagnation, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, met in St. Petersburg with Witkoff, although after four hours of meeting without any representative of Ukraine, no agreement was made public. “You don’t have to wait for any advance,” he warned before the appointment Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman.
Russia responds to the US: “We can verify certain advances”
Now the Kremlin has responded to Marco Rubio. The Russian government says this Friday that there have been “concrete advances” in negotiations with the United States for a peaceful arrangement in Ukraine, in response to the statements of the US Secretary of State that their country could abandon the peace process. “We consider that certain advances can be verified. This progress is related to the provisional moratorium that was respected by Russia not to launch attacks against energy infrastructure,” said Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, in his daily telephone press conference.
Peskov has indicated that certain agreements have been reached in recent weeks, although, “of course we still have many complicated discussions ahead.” At the same time, he admitted that the 30 -day energy truce “won” after Russia and Ukraine were constantly accused of violations.
As for a possible resumption of Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, he pointed out that “at the moment there is no other order of the supreme commander, the president (Vladimir) Putin.”
As for the statements of the US president, Donald Trump, that he expects Moscow to provide them with “this week” an answer to the proposal on a high fire between Russia and Ukraine, Peskov has been cautious. “The issue of the Ukrainian arrangement is complex. The Russian part is in favor of the arrangement of this conflict, the defense of its own interests and is open to dialogue,” he said.
A pre -agreement to exploit Ukrainian minerals
On the other hand, late this Thursday, Ukraine and the United States announced the signing of an intention memorandum that paves the way to an economic association agreement and the creation of the investment fund for the reconstruction of the country, as published in X the Vice Prime Ukrainian Minister and head of the Economics portfolio, Yulia Svydenko. “We hope that the fund will become an effective tool to attract investments in the reconstruction of our country, the modernization of infrastructure, support for business and the creation of new economic opportunities,” Svyrydenko wrote in the social network. The Vice Prime Ukrainian Minister also stressed that the document collects the desire of the American people to “invest with the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign and safe Ukraine.”
Already this Friday, the Ukrainian government has made public the content of the memorandum, which specifies that both countries intend to end the agreement for the exploitation of mineral resources before April 26 and sign it “as soon as possible” from that date. To do this, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denís Shmigal will travel next week to the US capital to meet with the US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent. The objective of the trip is to conclude the technical discussions on the investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine that will be created within the framework of the agreement.
Svydenko explained that the memorandum is the result of the technical work of the negotiating teams, which recently concluded a round of conversations in Washington. The next step will be to finish the text of the Economic Association Agreement, sign it and submit it to the ratification of the parliaments of both countries.
Meanwhile, the minister added, progress continues to develop the agreement: “There is a lot to do, but the current rhythm and significant progress give reasons to wait for the document to be very beneficial for both countries.”
The memorandum also feels the basis for future cooperation in the exploitation of Ukrainian mineral resources, a topic that was addressed this Thursday in Washington by the US president, Donald Trump, during a reunión with the Italian Primera Minister, Giorgia Meloni. “We have an agreement on minerals, which I understand that it will be signed on Thursday -April 24,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
However, his Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, clarified that “the details are still being finalized” and that the firm could take place “around April 25”.
For his part, the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, said that both countries could sign the memorandum of intentions on April 24, suggesting that the document signed today would be a previous step in that direction.
Source: www.eldiario.es
