The United States will immediately lift the pause in intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine, according to a joint statement issued after a meeting of the Ukrainian and U.S. delegations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
In return, Ukraine agreed to accept a U.S. proposal for the immediate introduction of a temporary 30-day ceasefire that can be extended by mutual agreement, subject to acceptance and simultaneous implementation by Russia.
Speaking during an event at the White House to promote Tesla vehicles, U.S. President Donald Trump said of the ceasefire proposal: “Ukraine has agreed to it, and hopefully Russia will agree to it.”
“I’ll talk to Vladimir Putin,” he added. “It takes two to tango.”
Speaking in Jeddah, Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting the talks and said it now falls on Russia to accept the ceasefire terms outlined by the U.S. and Ukraine and to move toward “real negotiations” that actually end the war.
“We’ll take this offer now to the Russians. And we hope that they’ll say yes, they’ll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court,” Rubio said, crediting Trump for the outcome of the talks. “The president’s objective here is number one above everything else: He wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.”
Rubio was joined on the U.S. side by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The Ukrainians were represented by Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
Waltz added that the “shuttle diplomacy” will continue in the coming days, and that he will speak with his Russian counterpart directly. Rubio explained that discussions with Russia will occur via traditional diplomatic channels, “conversations and other methods.”
Speaking to Russian state news service TASS, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “We do not rule out contacts with US representatives over the next few days.”
The high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia were the first between top U.S. officials and the Ukrainian leadership since Zelenskyy clashed with Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance in front of journalists at the White House on Feb. 28.
Relations between the two countries have been fragile since then, with Trump halting U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine. Since the rift, Kyiv has tried desperately to patch up relations with Washington to restore essential aid and win back the support of their key backer.
Asked about the state of the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy, Rubio insisted things are back on track in the pursuit of peace, but did not specifically comment on the relationship between the two leaders.
“This is serious stuff, okay? This is not Mean Girls. This is not some episode of some television show. This is very serious,” Rubio said. “People will die in this war. They died yesterday. And sadly, unless there’s a ceasefire tonight, they will die tomorrow. The president wants that to stop. That’s what he’s interested in here. And that’s why we came here.”
Ahead of the talks, Rubio hinted on Monday evening that aid could start flowing again depending on the outcome, saying the U.S. “could have good news to announce on that front” — but added that Ukraine would have to give up some of the territory Russia has seized since 2014 in return for any deal to end the war.
Ukraine has long ruled out any ceasefire agreement that includes giving up land occupied by Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russian President Vladimir Putin seized in 2014. The Ukrainian government has instead called for a “just peace” that would see the Kremlin pay reparations for its grinding three-year war.
Hours before the delegations were due to meet in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the start of the war.
“All the drone strikes in Russia tonight — on Moscow, on airports and so on — are the signal to Putin that he also must be interested in a truce in the sky that Ukraine is going to offer today during talks. Not only oil refineries,” Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian government’s center for countering disinformation, said in a video statement.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, NATO leaders from 30 countries prepared to gather in Paris — without the U.S. — to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and shore up support for Kyiv. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading efforts to convene a “coalition of the willing” that would support Ukraine with peacekeeping troops in the event of a peace deal.
“We welcome today’s news from Jeddah on the U.S.-Ukraine talks, including the proposal for a ceasefire agreement and the resumption of U.S. intelligence sharing and security assistance,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X. “This is a positive development that can be a step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting [peace].”
Source: Politico
