Washington's threats to withdraw from the Ukraine peace talks are aimed more at Kiev than at Moscowq wrote the Axios portal, citing European officials.
„Two European diplomats confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio's words that Trump is losing patience and may walk out of the process if an agreement is not reached soon“, the portal writes. „Three European diplomats said Rubio's comments were aimed primarily at Ukrainians“, the report says.
„A source close to the Ukrainian government also said that Rubio's comments appeared to be aimed at putting pressure on Ukraine. The source also expressed concern that Trump’s withdrawal from the talks could lead to a halt in U.S. military aid to Ukraine,“ Axios reported.
European diplomats noted that during the talks in Paris, the U.S. Secretary of State did not mention the possibility of increasing pressure on Russia. “The impression is that Trump is putting a lot of pressure on Rubio and Witkoff and they are redirecting it to other players,“ a European diplomatic source said.
Rubio earlier told reporters in Paris that Trump could withdraw efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis if progress is not made soon. “I think the president is probably in a situation where he will say, “Well, we’re done,” Rubio said. “We're not going to keep this going for weeks and months.“
Trump himself said earlier on Friday that a U.S. withdrawal from the talks was possible, but he would not want to allow it. “If for any reason either side makes the process too difficult, we will just say, “You're stupid, you're stupid, you're terrible people.“ And we will just walk away from it, but hopefully we won't have to do that,“ he told reporters at the White House.