The Trump administration may abandon its mediation efforts with Russia and Ukraine if the conflict continues unabated without progress toward peace.

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian officials for negotiations in Paris. “The President has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to an end.”

The US will abandon trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs a truce can be reached, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned.

"We're not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end," Rubio said, adding that the US had "other priorities to focus on".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has placed a number of conditions on any potential ceasefire.

The United States will abandon efforts to end the war in Ukraine if it proves impossible to broker meaningful progress in the next several days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said as he departed Paris on Friday a day after meeting with President Emmanuel Macron of France.

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Mr. Rubio told reporters, adding that the Trump administration would decide “in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.”

Myanmar's ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country's civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3,000 people.

The surprise announcement by military leaders who also head the unelected government came late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the halt in fighting would run until April 22 to show compassion for people affected by Friday's quake.

Donald Trump has said he is "very angry" and "pissed off" with Russian President Vladimir Putin after weeks of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine.

In an NBC News interview, the US president criticised Putin for attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's credibility, and threatened to impose a 50% tariff on countries buying Russian oil if he did not agree to a ceasefire.

Last week, Putin suggested the possibility of a UN-run government in Ukraine to organise new elections and then begin peace talks.

gypt made a new proposal last week aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire deal, security sources told Reuters on Monday.

The proposal follows an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against Hamas last Tuesday, effectively ending a two-month period of relative calm.

As high-level delegations from the U.S. and Russia arrive in Saudi Arabia for the second round of bilateral talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Moscow’s envoys will have one goal on their mind: buying time.

For the Kremlin, dragging out peace negotiations for as long as possible is imperative for seizing as much Ukrainian territory as it can and getting an upper hand over Kyiv in relations with the U.S., as Moscow isn’t capable of making these battlefield advances quickly, four sources familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking told The Moscow Times. 

A State Department spokesperson said Thursday that Ukraine and Russia are “just a breath away from a full ceasefire” after three years of war.

“We are just a breath away from a full ceasefire, and then we can begin to talk about not just peace for a week or six months, but an enduring peace that the people of Ukraine and Russia and the world can rely on, and that is what America has helped facilitate, and that’s what we’re continuing to do each day,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told anchor Nichole Berlie on “NewsNation Now.”

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, threatening the complete collapse of a two-month ceasefire as Israel vowed to use more force to free hostages held by Hamas.

The Palestinian militant group, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire and jeopardising efforts by mediators to secure a permanent truce.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is over as Israeli fighter jets began striking the Gaza Strip after Hamas refused repeated hostage deal offers, officials said.

At least 326 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the airstrikes, according to hospital officials.