US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the time has come for concrete proposals from Russia and Ukraine to end the war in Ukraine.
He warned that if there is no progress in the negotiations, the US will withdraw as a mediator, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
"We are now at a point where both sides need to present concrete proposals on how to end this conflict," Bruce said, citing a statement from Rubio.
"How to proceed is now a decision that belongs to the President. If there is no progress, we will withdraw as a mediator in this process," she added.
This statement comes on the same day that the Kremlin rejected the proposal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a 30-day ceasefire instead of the ceasefire proposed by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the three days when Russia marks Victory Day, from May 8 to 10.
Efforts to reach a bilateral ceasefire or a broader peace agreement accelerated after US President Donald Trump took office in January, promising to end the war within 24 hours.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, refused to engage in deep talks with Moscow as long as the occupation continues.
Although Trump has opened direct talks with Moscow, Russian officials have sought to broaden the negotiations to include not only the conflict in Ukraine but also the broader bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a limited ceasefire in March, but both sides have continued to attack each other. On the battlefield, Russian forces have used their superiority in numbers and weapons to wear down Ukrainian troops.
Putin has previously said, during negotiations over the US proposal, that the ceasefire plan should contain clauses prohibiting Ukraine from using the pause to regroup and arm itself, as well as a ban on Western arms supplies to Kiev. He has not offered any compromises from Russia in return.
Over the weekend, on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral at the Vatican, Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Zelensky since February, when talks in the Oval Office broke down amid tensions.
Trump said the meeting had gone well, but added that he thought Zelensky was willing to hand over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula to Russia as a compromise - something the Ukrainian leader has long stated he would never do.
Later, Trump called on Putin to "cease fire" and accept a peace deal. REL (A2 Televizion)
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