Braxton Taylor
Kyiv and Washington have agreed to pitch a 30-day ceasefire to Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, adding that the United States will immediately resume delivering vital weapons and intelligence to Ukraine.
“Now we’ll have to go to Russia, and hopefully President [Vladimir] Putin will agree to it also,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to meet with them later on today and tomorrow.”
Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, was scheduled to head to Russia today for those talks.
Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts met on Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his own statement that the day’s discussions began with Ukraine’s key priorities: stopping Russia’s missile and drone attacks, releasing prisoners of war, the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, and building confidence in the overall diplomatic process.
“The American side understands our arguments and considers our proposals,” Zelenskyy said. “The U.S. side proposed taking an even bigger first step—a 30-day full interim ceasefire, not only stopping missile, drone, and bomb attacks, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line. Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal.”
At the Jeddah meeting, the Ukrainian delegation “reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process,” according to a joint statement from Ukraine and the United States—an important point for the Ukrainians and a move that Russia has resisted.
Tuesday’s deal gives the White House much of what it wanted. Ukraine is likely to concede territory to Russia, at least militarily, and enter a mineral deal with the United States.
“Both countries’ presidents agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security,” according to the joint statement.
The U.S. cutoff of intelligence put immense pressure on Ukraine to accede to White House demands. Reports from Lithuania-based independent Russian news outlet Meduza indicate the cutoff was already hurting Ukraine’s tenuous hold on the Russian region of Kursk.
One former senior White House official told Defense One “an unconditional ceasefire is probably in Ukraine’s best interest, if it holds.”
But Zelenskyy was able to resist much of what Trump was demanding after the Oval Office showdown, securing a win of sorts. Trump pushed for Zelensky’s ouster—a long-time goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in February referred to Zelenskyy as “the current head of the regime,” and said he “stands in the way” of peace.
Instead, Trump’s efforts to strongarm Ukraine helped unite European partners in support of Zelenskyy and the beleaguered country. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer began to assemble a “coalition of the willing” across Europe, including the possibility of European troops to deter Russia from attempting to expand its territorial hold following a peace deal. French President Emmanuel Macron likewise expressed a willingness to extend France’s nuclear-deterrence umbrella to other European nations to bolster the continent’s security independence from Washington.
The intelligence cutoff also underscored the importance of intelligence sources outside of Washington. “The U.S. halt to military aid and intelligence sharing would have a ‘significant operational impact’ on Ukraine. But France’s own intelligence provided to Kyiv was not reliant on Washington,” French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said last week.
The idea of the United States pushing for the removal of a democratically elected head of state alarmed even Trump allies, including Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma.
Putin has also pushed for the demilitarization of Ukraine and said he would never accept the presence of European troops on Ukraine’s soil. European officials told Bloomberg on Tuesday that they don’t expect Russia’s terms to be met.
But it will depend on Russia’s demands to Witkoff, the former senior White House official said: “It’s entirely possible then that Trump tells Zelenskyy that he should meet those demands if wants the ceasefire to hold.”
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