Ukraine endorsed a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in crunch talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday after three years of grinding war.
The positive response from Ukraine prompted US President Donald Trump’s administration to lift a freeze on military aid and to predict the beginning to an end of the conflict.
With Trump stunning allies by applying intense pressure on Kyiv and reaching out to Moscow, Ukrainian officials came to talks in Saudi Arabia eager to make up and had proposed a partial truce on air and sea attacks.
Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via AFP
Trump’s advisers pressed for more and said Ukraine agreed to their proposal for a full month-long ceasefire in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“Today, we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after about nine hours of talks in a hotel in Jeddah.
“We’ll take this offer now to the Russians and we hope they’ll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court,” Rubio said.
“If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” Rubio said of Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in February 2022.
Rubio said the US would immediately resume military assistance and intelligence sharing it had cut off to pressure its wartime partner following a disastrous Feb. 28 meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In Washington, Trump said he was ready to welcome Zelenskiy back to the White House and might speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.
Asked by a reporter about the prospects of a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine, Trump answered: “Well, I hope it will be over the next few days, I’d like to see.”
“I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow, and some great conversations hopefully will ensue,” he said.
In a joint statement, Ukraine and the US said they would conclude “as soon as possible” a deal securing US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth, which Trump demanded as compensation for billions of dollars in US weapons under his predecessor, former US president Joe Biden.
Zelenskiy was supposed to sign the deal at the White House before the dramatic on-camera showdown, in which Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance dressed down the wartime leader and accused him of ingratitude.
Zelenskiy quickly thanked Trump over the “positive” ceasefire proposal made in Jeddah and said the US must now work to persuade Russia.
“The American side understands our arguments, perceives our proposals, and I want to thank President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address.
Since the US cut off aid and intelligence sharing, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and seized back land in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces had infiltrated.
Hours before the Jeddah talks, Ukraine staged a major direct attack on Moscow, with hundreds of drones slamming into the capital and other areas, leaving three people dead.
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