$BTC Trade war Russia Ukraine

Trump spoke on Friday shortly after secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.

The US president said:

Now, if for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say you’re foolish. You are fools, you horrible people.

And we’re going to just take a pass. But hopefully, we won’t have to do that.

Rubio’s dour assessment came after landmark talks in Paris among US, Ukrainian and European officials produced outlines for steps toward peace and appeared to make some long-awaited progress. Another meeting is expected next week in London, and Rubio suggested it could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters in Paris. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on. It’s not our war. We have other priorities to focus on.”

He said the US administration wants to decide “in a matter of days”.

More on that story in a moment, but first, here are some other developments: