US will drop Ukraine ceasefire efforts if progress is not made soon, says Trump

In his efforts to put an end to the grueling conflict, President Donald Trump stated on Friday that talks between Russia and Ukraine are "coming to a head" and that neither country is "playing" him.

Trump's remarks followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio's warning earlier in the day that if no progress is made in the next few days to cease the conflict, the United States may "move on" from attempting to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

"Now, we are just going to call you stupid if one of the two sides makes things really difficult for any reason. "You terrible people, you are idiots," Trump remarked. And we are simply going to give it a pass. Hopefully, though, we will not have to.

Following historic talks between US, Ukrainian, and European officials in Paris that established blueprints for moves towards peace and seemed to make some long-awaited progress, Rubio delivered a sobering assessment of the state of negotiations. Rubio said that the upcoming meeting in London next week could be crucial in deciding if the Trump administration stays involved.

In Paris, Rubio told reporters, "We are now at a position where we need to decide whether this is even realistic or not." Because I believe we will simply move on if it isn't. We are not at war. We need to concentrate on other things.

The US administration aims to make a decision "in a matter of days," he said.