With U.S. frustration rising, Marco Rubio warned that the Trump administration could abandon its peacemaking efforts in the absence of any clear progress.
The Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fourth year, continues to rage.
During his election campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to swiftly bring an end to the deadly conflict upon returning to office in January.
After three months of phone calls, meetings, and trips seeking to bring the two warring countries to the negotiation table for a cease-fire, a concrete breakthrough has yet to materialize.
Here’s what we know about the current state of U.S. efforts to end the war—or at least to broker a limited truce.
Talks in Saudi Arabia
In February, shortly after Trump’s return to the White House, top U.S. and Russian officials held landmark talks in Saudi Arabia to discuss possible means of ending the conflict.
Since then, Moscow and Washington have both repeatedly stressed their desire to see an end to the war, which has left hundreds of thousands dead in its wake.
On April 11, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, visited St. Petersburg, Russia, where he held four-hour talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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In past remarks, Putin has said he is ready to agree to a comprehensive cease-fire in Ukraine—but only if longstanding Russian demands are met.
Those demands include recognition of Russian sovereignty over four Ukrainian regions that Moscow invaded in 2022 and currently views as Russian territory.
Russia also demands the full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from these four regions, along with iron-clad guarantees that Ukraine will never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Unacceptable Terms
Kyiv and several European capitals—along with some Trump administration officials—say the Russian demands are unacceptable and would amount to a de facto capitulation by Ukraine.
Nevertheless, in recent comments, Witkoff has voiced a willingness to consider Moscow’s terms for ending the conflict.
In a March 21 interview with political commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff noted that the four regions claimed by Moscow are “Russian-speaking.”
“There have been referendums (in the four regions) where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule,” he said.
Days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was “very disturbed” by Witkoff’s comments.
“We are fighting Putin, and we really do not want him to have many assistants.
“This is definitely difficult for us because we are already fighting a country that is 40 times larger in terms of territory.”
Zelenskyy went on to note that Witkoff was not a military expert, further alleging that Trump’s special envoy was being influenced by Russian “narratives.”
Ukraine, he said, “will fight these narratives wherever they are.”
Top U.S. and Russian officials hold landmark talks in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 18, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein/AFP via Getty Images
US-Backed Limited Cease-Fires Stall
In late March, U.S. officials returned to Saudi Arabia, where they held separate talks with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, who agreed—in theory—to a limited truce aimed at ending hostilities in the Black Sea.
After those talks, Moscow and Washington both said they had agreed “to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
It further demanded, among other things, “the removal of restrictions imposed on trade finance operations (and) the removal of sanctions imposed on (Russian) companies producing and exporting food … and fertilizers.”
In response, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said administration officials would evaluate Moscow’s demands.
Trading Blame for Truce Breaches
Zelenskyy, for his part, accused Moscow of tacking additional demands for sanctions relief onto the prospective Black Sea cease-fire deal.
“They are posing conditions on sanctions to the American side,” he said on March 26, voicing hope that U.S. negotiators would “stand strong” against the Russian demands.
“We (Ukraine) have shown our resilience,” the Ukrainian president said. “It is very important for our partners to be at least as resilient as we are.”
During last month’s talks in Saudi Arabia, Moscow and Kyiv both pledged to abide by a U.S.-brokered moratorium on attacking each other’s energy facilities.
Since then, however, both sides have accused the other of repeatedly breaching the moratorium.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the diplomat’s claim.
The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where talks between Russian and U.S. officials were held on March 24, 2025. Mohammed Benmansour/Reuters
Mounting Frustration
Following the last round of talks, U.S. officials—including Trump himself—began voicing impatience with the lack of progress in securing a cease-fire deal.
In remarks to NBC News on March 30, Trump said he was very angry at his Russian counterpart, whom he appeared to blame for ongoing hostilities.
“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault … I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia,” he said.
The following day, U.S. National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt confirmed the administration’s “deep frustration with the Russian government over negotiations.”
On April 12, Trump said cease-fire talks were still underway and again voiced frustration with the slow pace of progress.
“I think Ukraine-Russia might be going okay,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
But, he added, “there’s a point at which you just have to either put up or shut up.”
‘Political Will’ for Solution
Nevertheless, Witkoff, speaking to Fox News on April 15, voiced confidence that a workable cease-fire agreement could still be reached, describing his recent meeting with Putin as “compelling.”
“There are no clear outlines of any deal yet,” Peskov said. “But there is a political will to move toward a deal.”
Ukrainian officials remain adamant that Kyiv would not be pressured into accepting Moscow’s terms for ending the conflict.
Kyiv has informed U.S. officials that it would not agree to any reduction of its armed forces or its overall military preparedness, Reuters reported.
“This is a principled position of Ukraine,” Pavlo Palisa, the deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, told the outlet in an April 10 interview.
“No one—and certainly not the aggressor country, Russia—will dictate to Ukraine what kind of armed forces Ukraine should have.”
Palisa added that a well-armed military remained Kyiv’s best guarantee against renewed Russian aggression.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on April 11, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Diplomatic Contacts Ongoing
Despite the slow pace of progress, Peskov confirmed this week that U.S.-Russia contacts continue, at both the diplomatic and intelligence levels and through Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, who visited Washington earlier this month.
“But, of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results,” Peskov said, citing the poor state of U.S.-Russia relations, for which he blamed the previous administration in Washington.
Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Sovereign Investment Fund, visited Washington on April 2, where he held extensive talks with Trump administration officials.
Speaking to CNN shortly afterward, he said the two sides were honing in on a diplomatic solution to the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.
Russia and the United States, he said, “are now in (the) realm of thinking about what is possible, what can really work, and how we can find a long-term solution.”
Difficult Road Ahead
Despite the recent flurry of diplomatic activity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that it was “not easy to agree (on) the key components of a settlement.”
Speaking to the Russian press on April 14, he further confirmed that Moscow and Washington had yet to agree on even the basic parameters of a cease-fire deal.
“They are being discussed,” he said.
On April 15, Zelenskyy reiterated Kyiv’s position, saying that Ukraine was a “sovereign state” and that “all territories belong to the state of Ukraine.”
“Only the people of Ukraine can speak about the territories of our country,” he said at a joint press conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte in Odesa.
“For us, these are red lines—to recognize any temporarily occupied territories not as Ukrainian, but as Russian.”
In an apparent reference to U.S. negotiators, the Ukrainian leader said: “These representatives discuss issues outside their competence.”
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end,” Rubio said after a meeting in Paris with European and Ukrainian leaders.
“We need to determine very quickly now—and I’m talking about a matter of days—whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks,” he added. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.”
Trump echoed Rubio’s remarks later that day.
“If, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people,’ and we’re going to just take a pass,” the president said at the White House. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
An aerial view shows a dragline excavator operating in an open-pit titanium mine in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region on Feb. 28, 2025. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
US–Ukraine Minerals Deal Imminent
As peace prospects continue to founder, Kyiv announced this week that it had signed a memorandum with Washington as a first step towards forging a deal on the joint development of Ukraine’s mineral resources.
“We are happy to announce the signing with our American partners,” Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister and first deputy prime minister, said in an April 17 social media post.
Trump has said the deal is a possible means of fostering peace between Moscow and Kyiv by giving the United States a financial stake in Ukraine’s future.
Trump also views a prospective minerals deal as a way to recoup some of the tens of billions of dollars the United States has given Ukraine—in the form of financial and military assistance—since the conflict began in 2022.
The two sides had been poised to sign a draft minerals agreement in February, but this was delayed following an acrimonious White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy.
According to Svyrydenko, the freshly signed memorandum will pave the way for an economic partnership deal and the establishment of an investment fund for the reconstruction of war-battered Ukraine.
Trump, who has said a final agreement could be signed next week, has pushed for a deal that would give the United States privileged access to Ukraine’s natural resources and critical minerals.
“We’re still working on the details,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week. “It’s substantially what we’d agreed on previously.”
According to the memorandum, which has been published by Ukraine, Kyiv and Washington hope to finalize talks on the deal’s terms by April 26 following a visit to the United States by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
