Ukraine said it supports the Trump administration’s proposal to have a 30-day ceasefire with Russia after talks in Saudi Arabia.
Prior to talks, Ukraine and Russia launched fatal strikes on each other’s territory, including a massive drone attack on Moscow.
What happened on Tuesday?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US national security adviser Michael Waltz sat in Jeddah with a delegation led by the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Foreign Minister Andri Sibikha and Defense Minister Rasm Umerov.
After more than eight hours of talks, the US and Ukraine issued a joint statement that Kiev supports the Trump administration’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, subject to Russia’s approval. The US said it would resume providing military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, but Ukraine stopped after an explosive US-crane meeting at the White House.
The US and Ukraine have also agreed to conclude the contract “as soon as possible” to develop Ukraine’s important mineral resources.
Rubio said the deal now puts pressure on Russia to end the war.
“We now accept this offer to the Russians. We hope they say yes. They will say yes in peace.” “The ball is in their court now.”
The United States is separately pursuing consultations between Russia and Ukraine. There was no official indication that Russia would accept an unconditional month of ceasefire. And Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has shown that he will demand concessions, including excluded membership in Ukraine’s NATO, before agreeing to a halt of the war.
Russia was not present in Tuesday’s talks. President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkov, will visit Russia in the coming days, according to two people familiar with the issue that called for anonymity to discuss internal plans.
Ukraine and Russia trade strike
Hours before talks began, Russian officials said Ukraine had attacked Moscow with the largest long-range drone bombardment of the war.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has fired down at least 91 drones before dawn in the Moscow region, with more than 240 drones targeting other parts of the country. Russian authorities said at least three people have been killed in the Moscow region and 18 others have been injured.
Kiev has long argued that the only way to force Russia to accept a lasting peace agreement is through force and by increasing the costs of the Kremlin war. The timing of the overnight attack on Moscow was intended to bring the message home, Ukrainian official Andry Kovalenko, who focused on Russian disinformation operations, said in a statement.
Russia also continues to relentlessly fire on Ukrainian civil and military institutions, regularly launching more than 100 drones each night.
The state of war
The Russian army has long held initiatives on the battlefields of Ukraine. In recent weeks, they have been able to seize about two-thirds of Ukrainian territory seized in the Kursk region of Russia last summer.
However, Ukrainian forces have stagnated Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region in recent months, beginning to reclaim small patches of small land, according to military analysts and Ukrainian soldiers. But military analysts have been debating whether the Russian brigade is running out of money or whether it is being reorganized for a new push after more than 15 months after the attack.
Ukraine and Western estimates show that the war killed and wounded more than a million soldiers in total.
The tension of US-UKRAINE
These were the first high-level in-person meetings for the United States and Ukraine since the White House meeting on February 28th, when President Trump and Vice President JD Vance denounced and condemned President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine faces the challenge of the opinion that it will adapt to its main allies who will adopt enemy positions. Russia and the Trump administration questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy and denounced Ukraine for starting a war.
Ukrainian officials are trying to smoothen their ties with the Trump administration. Over the weekend, French and British officials led Ukrainian delegations on how to speak to Americans, Ukrainian officials said.
Potential concessions
While European allies have pledged further support for Kiev, Ukraine is seen to have few options to reverse recent gains on the battlefield.
On a flight to Jeddah, Rubio said Ukraine must concessions on the land that Russia has taken since 2014 as part of an agreement to end the war. However, he also said it is essential to determine what Russia is trying to acknowledge in future consultations with Moscow.
“I don’t know how far they are really,” he said, referring to Ukraine and Russia.
Before Tuesday’s talks, Ukraine had argued that the ceasefire would include security guarantees, but there was no indication from a statement issued Tuesday that such guarantees would be provided before the interim ceasefire took effect.
Anton Troiannovsky and Alan Rappyport contributed the report.
