Washington DC - Secretary of State Marco Rubio again warned on Tuesday that the US would give up on mediation unless Russia and Ukraine put forward "concrete proposals" for an end to the war.

President Donald Trump had vowed to end the war in his first 24 hours back in the White House but both he and Rubio have repeatedly indicated that US patience with the drawn-out process is wearing thin.

"We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters, in what she said was a message from Rubio.

"If there is not progress, we will step back as mediators in this process."

Israel-Gaza War Mahmoud Khalil gets good news from judge in lawsuit challenging ICE detention

She said it would ultimately be up to Trump to decide whether to move ahead on diplomacy.

The president suggested on Tuesday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin still wants to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine.

Asked in an interview with ABC television if Putin wants peace, Trump said: "I think he does."

Putin recently proposed a three-day truce around Moscow's commemorations next week for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but rebuffed a Ukrainian-backed US call for a 30-day ceasefire.

The US wants "not a three-day moment so you can celebrate something else – a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict," Bruce insisted.

The US already put together a framework proposal which Ukrainians feel concedes to Russian demands.

Trump has suggested an official recognition of Russia's takeover in 2014 of Crimea, an annexation rejected by nearly all the world, in addition to land swaps.

"We all want this war to end in a fair way – with no rewards for Putin, especially no land," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told an event in Poland by videoconference on Tuesday.

Daily Horoscope Today's horoscope: Free daily horoscope for Monday, April 28, 2025

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, sought to blame Zelensky for the stalemate and said that Russia would keep speaking with the US.

Zelensky "is bent on escalating the conflict. He's recklessly rejecting the United States' balanced peace proposals," Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that recognizing "Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea would invite additional aggression from Moscow and Beijing."

"I have endeavored to give President Trump the space to negotiate a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is a goal we both share," she said.

"However, President Trump and his team have fatally mismanaged these negotiations -- offering concession after concession to Russia, throwing away our leverage and fracturing the united front with our allies that is critical to ending this war," she said.