US may withdraw from negotiating process on Ukrainian conflict

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia must be signed soon, and if this does not happen, Washington will withdraw from the negotiating process.

"I think this will be a critical week. We have to decide whether we will continue to participate in a peace settlement or whether it is time to focus on other issues that are equally or in some cases more important. There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are, of course, reasons to be realistic. We are close, but not close enough," the US Secretary of State emphasized.

The day before, Marco Rubio held a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. As the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, the parties focused on the topic of the Ukrainian crisis, stressed the importance of consolidating the prerequisites for negotiations in order to agree on a path to long-term peace.