Ukraine agreed to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the conflict with Russia during talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia, the countries said in a joint statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would now take the offer to the Russians, and that the ball is now in Moscow’s court.
The United States will resume sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
Ukrainian and US officials met behind closed doors for hours to find a path towards ending the war with Russia, after Kyiv’s forces launched their largest drone attack on Moscow of the war overnight.
After more than eight hours of talks, the two sides issued a joint statement that said Ukraine was willing to accept the U.S. proposal for an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire that could be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, subject to acceptance and implementation by Russia.
“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace,” the statement said.
“The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine,” the statement said.
The two sides also said Washington and Kyiv agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources, a deal that has been in the works for weeks and was thrown into limbo by an acrimonious White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.
A joint statement has been released saying Ukraine is ready to accept a US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire with Russia – and for negotiations to begin to end the war
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – who’s been key to the talks in Jeddah – told reporters “the ball is in the [Russians’] court’, and he will take the offer to Moscow
He said he hopes the Russians will agree to the ceasefire, but if they don’t “we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here”
Clarifying some details about the proposed ceasefire, Rubio said “the offer is to stop the shooting” – going beyond Zelensky’s proposal for a partial truce in the sea and sky
“Today people will die in this war, they died yesterday and – sadly – unless there’s a ceasefire, they will die tomorrow,” Rubio said, adding repeatedly that US President Donald Trump wants to put an end to the war in Ukraine
We’ll have some analysis from our correspondents coming to you shortly. Stick with us.
