Ukraine agrees to temporary ceasefire with Russia
WASHINGTON – Ukraine agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Russia on Tuesday, negotiators announced from Saudi Arabia.
Russia would need to agree to the proposal for it to take effect as a crucial first step in ending the 3-year-old war.
“Now we have to go to Russia and hopefully President Putin will agree to that, and we can get this show on the road,” President Donald Trump told reporters, adding that his White House team plans to discuss the deal with Russian counterparts.
"Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal − we see it as a positive step and are ready to take it," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. "Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same."
"If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately," Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine was still reeling from an Oval Office meltdown last month between Trump and Zelenskyy when its negotiators met with administration officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
After a dramatic White House blowup on Feb. 28 derailed a planned minerals deal, roiled relations between the two countries and led the U.S. to cut off weapons and intelligence aid, Washington and Kyiv were hopeful they could repair relations and make progress on a truce with Russia.
'Stop the shooting'
Coming out of the talks Tuesday, the two teams announced the proposed ceasefire, which would freeze the conflict along current battle lines.
“Yes, that’s the offer. The offer is to stop the shooting," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Jeddah. "The goal here is: The only way to end this war is to negotiate out of it. There is no military solution to this war.
“Before you can negotiate, you have to stop shooting at each other,” Rubio said. “That’s what the president has wanted to see, and that’s the commitment we got today from the Ukrainian side. They’re willing to do that. Obviously now that will be delivered to the Russians.”
Shuttle diplomacy
National security adviser Mike Waltz told reporters that “the shuttle diplomacy continues” after talks with Ukraine. Waltz said he planned to speak with his Russian counterpart, and Rubio was scheduled to meet with foreign ministers of the largest seven economies.
Trump will meet Thursday with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House to continue the conversations.
He also plans to speak this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the ceasefire proposal. “It takes two to tango, as they say, right?” Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “So hopefully he'll also agree."
US restarts arms and intelligence to Ukraine
In the interim, the U.S. said it would resume the intelligence sharing and military assistance to Ukraine that had been paused.
“As a result of this positive step forward, the president has decided to lift the pause on aid and on our security assistance going forward,” Waltz said. “That’s effective immediately.”
Waltz said negotiators also discussed long-term security guarantees for Ukraine. He did not say what those were.
Trump had been noncommittal about resuming assistance to Ukraine but indicated Sunday that he was close to lifting the intelligence pause.
Russia has been assaulting Ukraine with missiles and drones since the U.S. halted weapons shipments, and Trump threatened Moscow on Friday with sanctions. But he said he needed to be convinced that Ukraine was willing to make a peace deal to end the conflict for the U.S. to help Ukraine protect its airspace.
Hours before, as peace talks in Saudi Arabia were about to begin, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the start of the war, Russian authorities said.
Ukraine accepts U.S. proposal, pressures Russia to do the same
Zelenskyy proposed a ceasefire last week in which Russia and Ukraine would halt air and sea operations. He also called for an end to attacks on energy infrastructure and for the release of prisoners.
He said in an X post Tuesday that during the talks in Jeddah the U.S. proposed a complete, 30-day ceasefire that would extend to the front lines of the conflict.
"Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation," a joint U.S.-Ukraine statement read. "The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace."
20,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children
The statement said the U.S. and Ukraine also discussed a prisoner exchange, the release of civilians and the return from Russia of roughly 20,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children.
The offer to Russia did not come with a deadline, however. Rubio said the U.S. wants a quick agreement on the ceasefire so mediators can move on to discussions about a permanent end to the war.
He brushed off the earlier dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy that put a peace deal in jeopardy as a non-issue, telling reporters in Saudi Arabia: "This is not 'Mean Girls.' This is not some episode of some television show."
U.S. officials began talks in February with Putin's government about a cessation in hostilities.
If Russia does not agree to formal peace talks, the U.S. has indicated it will try to force Moscow’s hand.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that he would introduce a bill to put sanctions on Russia's banking and energy sectors. “If they don’t engage in ceasefire and peace talks with the administration, we should sanction the hell out of them,” the Republican senator said.
Trump maintains that Russia wants to end the war. But if Putin, with whom he spoke by phone in February, does not enter into negotiations, Trump has said he would pursue sanctions, tariffs and other punishments.
"The president is going to use whatever tools he has at his disposal to try to get both sides to that table so this war will end," Rubio told reporters Monday while on his way to Jeddah.
Minerals agreement nearing completion
Zelenskyy was in Saudi Arabia on Monday but was not there for Tuesday’s talks. Ukraine's negotiating team included top Zelenskyy aide Andriy Yermak, foreign affairs minister Andriy Sybiha and defense minister Rustem Umerov.
A proposed economic agreement that would give the U.S. access to proceeds from future investments in the development of Ukraine's rare earth minerals was nearing the finish line but was not complete as of Tuesday.
“Our respective presidents have instructed the appropriate members of their governments to bring this to finality and to conclusion,” Rubio said after the summit.
Keith Kellogg, special U.S. envoy to Russia and Ukraine, said last week that he had been trying to get across to the Ukrainians that the minerals agreement was paramount to relations with the United States.
“This is something that is a big deal for us because President Trump is a transactional leader, and transactional starts with economics,” Kellogg said.
Trump said Sunday that he believed Ukraine would sign the minerals agreement, which he has presented as a tacit security guarantee, and predicted the country would publicly embrace the U.S.-led peace talks.
This is a developing story.
Contributing: Joey Garrison