After hours of negotiations that ended with Ukrainian officials proposing a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, it wasn’t until they got home that they most wanted to hear: American military aid flowed once more.
Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, said that military aid has resumed again, “I’m just saying that while I’m sitting on the plane, I’m already sitting on the plane, there’s no better reward on such a crazy day than learning.
The resumption of US arms delivery and intelligence sharing was the result of one of the meetings in coastal cities in Jeddah on Tuesday. Accepting the ceasefire proposed by the Ukrainian Trump administration was someone else if Russia did the same.
Ukrainians were deeply skeptical of Russia’s acceptance of the proposal for a ceasefire, but the critical freeze in American aid was widely seen as a positive development that would help repair the ruptured relationship between Kiev and Washington.
Ukrainian President Voldmimir Zelensky appeared to be careful to express his gratitude to President Trump again on Wednesday after being accused of not being fully grateful at a tragic oval office meeting with the US president last month that led to the suspension of US aid.
“The United States wanted to show us that we wanted fast peace, so we showed it,” Zelensky told reporters in Kiev, the capital.
He said Trump played a role in the discussions from afar, and he spoke to the US delegation midway through negotiations as Ukrainian leaders were in touch with him. It took more than eight hours for US and Ukrainian officials to reach an agreement.
“The ball is currently in the Russian court,” Zelensky said Wednesday, reflecting comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the meeting.
The Kremlin has not said whether it will agree to a 30-day ceasefire. If Russia does not, Zelensky said he expects a “strong move” from the Trump administration.
“We don’t know the details yet, but we’re talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” he told reporters.
His comments appeared to reflect hope that the White House, which appears to be more closely aligned with the Kremlin, could ultimately put pressure on the fight to end.
Yet history informs the broader Ukrainian skepticism. Russia violated two previous ceasefires in 2014 and 2015, denying its intention to break into the country a few days before that in 2022.
“In my opinion, they introduced the ceasefire the same as before,” said Oleksandr Kovinko, a soldier fighting in eastern Ukraine. “We stick to it, our enemies don’t. And it’s hard to imagine and predict what it will actually be.”
And for Ukrainians who feel betrayed by the recent moves of the Trump administration, there was fear that the US might not be an honest broker.
“We don’t want the US to have completely moved on to Russia’s side,” said 31-year-old Yulia Poddikidysheva, a charity that reached by a phone call in Chernybutosi in western Ukraine.
Podkydysheva said that after 30 days of relentless fire, everyone can “breathe air and see the light” for 30 days. However, she does not think that the rest will continue.
“It’s probably about some rounds of the next struggle,” she said.
The war took away the intensity when questions swirled about whether the Kremlin would eventually accept the proposal.
Fierce battles have been reported up and down the eastern front of Ukraine.
And the Russian army was fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, maintaining artillery bombardment of military and civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine. The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired three ballistic missiles and 133 strike drones late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday.
One of the missiles was slammed by a civilian ship in the port city of Odesa when an announcement of a ceasefire proposal was made in Saudi Arabia, killing four crew members. The missile strike later killed one person and injured more than dozens of others in the city of Krivii RIH in central Ukraine. It is Zelensky’s hometown.
Liubov Sholudko contributed the report.
