Rubio says Trump admin will know Russia's interest in Ukraine ceasefire soon, as Putin accused of stalling
Brussels — Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting his country's invasion of Ukraine. The countries demanded a swift response from Moscow after weeks of U.S. efforts to secure a truce in the three-year war, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it would be clear "very soon" whether Putin was serious about reaching a peace deal.A Russian drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, killed five civilians and dramatized the diplomatic insistence on a ceasefire. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark. Some of the 32 injured, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.
Rescuers dig up the body of a person who died as a result of Russian drone attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine on March 29, 2025. Two people were killed in a massive attack on the city at night.
Sofiia Bobok/Anadolu via Getty Images
"Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. "We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace." Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. "Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet," British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.
Rubio said Russia's real intentions in the negotiations would become clear within weeks."We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it's a delay tactic," Rubio told reporters in Brussels. "Now we've reached the stage where we need to make progress."
From left to right, France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italy's Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy pose ahead of talks on the sidelines of the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 4, 2025.
JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP/Getty
A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump administration officials said Friday that further meetings will be needed to resolve outstanding issues. Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that "the dialogue will take some time, but it's proceeding positively and constructively."He criticized what he called a "well-coordinated media campaign and attempts by various politicians to spoil Russia-U.S. relations, distort what Russia says, and cast Russia and its leaders in a negative way."
Dmitriev, the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, was sanctioned by the Biden administration after the invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. had to temporarily lift the restrictions to allow him to travel to Washington this week. Civilian areas in three other Ukrainian regions were also hit by Russian attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 78 strike and decoy drones. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.
An injured resident sits in an ambulance after a Russian drone attack, April 4, 2025, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Serhii Prokopenko/Gwara Media/Global Images Ukraine/Getty
"We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing," Lammy said. Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin's negotiating position in the ceasefire talks, according to Ukrainian government and Western military analysts. The planned multi-pronged ground offensive along the 620-mile front line comes as muddy fields dry out and allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to roll into key positions across the countryside. Britain and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the "coalition of the willing" to set up a force that might police any future peace agreement in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said earlier this week that between 10 and 12 countries have said they are ready to join the coalition.
Barrot said Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks ago, and that Russia now "owes an answer to the United States."
France has taken a lead on new pledges of tangible support for Kyiv recently, with President Emmanuel Macron promising a military aid package worth more than $2 billion in late March, on top of at least $4 billion worth of military support France had already delivered to Ukraine since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion.President Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he promised last year to bring the war to a swift conclusion. "Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes," Barrot said. "It has to be 'yes.' It has to be 'no.' It has to be a quick answer." He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military service. The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up Ukraine's armed forces — the country's best security guarantee since the U.S. took any prospect of NATO membership off the table. Moscow's measured approach to the ceasefire negotiations has not surprised Western observers, because its army has momentum on the battlefield.A U.S. intelligence community annual threat assessment, published last month, noted that for Russia "positive battlefield trends allow for some strategic patience."
"Russia in the past year has seized the upper hand in… Ukraine and is on a path to accrue greater leverage to press Kyiv and its Western backers to negotiate an end to the war that grants Moscow concessions it seeks," the report said. Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. general in Europe, said Thursday at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that Russia is also rebuilding its military strength. Russian forces on the front line in Ukraine now number more than 600,000 troops, he said. That is the highest number during the war and almost double the size of the initial invasion force, he said, and Russia is on track to replace all the tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems it has lost so far. In addition, Cavoli said Russia is set to produce 250,000 artillery shells a month, allowing it to build a stockpile three times bigger than those of the U.S. and Europe combined.
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