WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump warned Thursday that Washington would “take a pass” on talks to end the Ukraine war within days unless there is rapid progress from Moscow and Kyiv.

His comments came just hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio set the clock ticking, saying in Paris that the US could “move on” from its role brokering the negotiations.

Trump has been pressing both sides for a truce, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite an ice-breaking call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and repeated negotiations with Moscow.

“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,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”

Republican Trump refused to cast blame on either Putin, who ordered the February 2022 full-scale invasion of pro-Western Ukraine, or Kyiv’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, insisting both sides had to make progress.

But Trump warned that a decision on whether to abandon the talks could come “very shortly.” “No specific number of days, but quickly. We want to get it done,” he added.