Following talks in Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration lifted the suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine after Kyiv said it was open to a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia, pending Moscow’s agreement.
This comes only a week after the US imposed measures to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to enter talks to end the war with invading Russian forces. Following the Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump showdown in the Oval Office about the conflict, US assistance was suspended.
As per CNN, after the talks, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, while speaking to the media, said, “The president has made it clear… that all fighting needs to stop — and the Ukrainians have agreed to that proposal, they’re ready for peace. And now, we’ll take that to the Russians…”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had led the US delegation in Jeddah, he said that this would be presented to Kremlin, which has opposed to anything short of a permanent end to the conflict without concession. According to the Associated Press (AP), he said the Ukraine was ready to stop and start talking, not it “up to them [Russia] to say yes or no”.
“If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” Rubio added.
Tuesday’s discussions lasted for nearly eight hours, during which the negotiators “got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end,” including long-term security guarantees.
He said that Trump agreed to immediately lift the pause in the supply of billions of dollars of US military aid and intelligence sharing.
ALSO READ: Starmer, Macron Welcome Ukraine Ceasefire Proposal, Say ‘Ball Is Now In Russia’s Court’
Trump hopes Russia agrees to ceasefire
After the Jeddah discussion, according to ANI, Trump told reporters, that Ukraine had agreed, “we have to go to Russia and hopefully President Putin will agree to that also and we can get this show on the road. ”
“We can get this horrible war…I get the reports and they’re not American soldiers. They’re Ukrainian and they’re Russian. But, people are being killed outside of that. People are being killed in the cities as things explode throughout the cities and we want to get that war over with,” he added.
He noted the difference between the last visit at the Oval Office and “so that’s a total ceasefire, Ukraine has agreed to it, and hopefully Russia will agree to it. We’re going to meet with him later on today and tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be able to wipe out a deal. But I think the ceasefire is very important.
“If we can get Russia to do it, that’ll be great. If we can’t, we just keep going on and people are going to get killed, lots of people,” he added.
#WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, ” Ukraine ceasefire, just agreed to it a little while ago. Now we have to go to Russia, and hopefully, President (Vladimir) Putin will also agree to it…People are being killed in the cities as things explode throughout the cities. We… pic.twitter.com/689kgW5EdY
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2025
Need to persuade Russia to accept the deal
Zelensky backed the United States’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but said Washington needed to persuade Russia to accept it. After talks in Saudi Arabia, in which Washington agreed to resume intelligence sharing with Kyiv and mooted a 30-day truce with Moscow. “Ukraine welcomes this proposal, we consider it positive, we are ready to take such a step. The United States of America has to convince Russia to do this,” Zelensky said of the proposed truce in his evening address.
“So we agree, and if the Russians agree, the ceasefire will work at that very moment,” he added.
“The American side understands our arguments, perceives our proposals, and I want to thank President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams,” he said, as per AFP.
