Ukraine endorsed an American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in pivotal talks in Jeddah on Tuesday after three years of grinding war.
A joint statement revealed that in the first high-level US-Ukraine meeting since President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House dressing down, America agreed to restore military aid, pledging to conclude a deal on Ukrainian minerals as soon as possible.
9News Nigeria reports that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said; “Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations,”
“We’ll take this offer now to the Russians and we hope they’ll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court,” he added.
The joint statement said that “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”.
The ceasefire is “subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” it added.
“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”
The talks in western Saudi Arabia took place after Ukraine launched its biggest direct attack on Moscow overnight, with hundreds of drones slamming into the capital and other areas, leaving three people dead.
Ukrainians were hoping to restore the US military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery that was cut off after Zelensky’s public row with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
They entered the meeting with a proposal for a sea and sky ceasefire that had been cautiously welcomed by Rubio.
“We are ready to do everything to achieve peace,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters as he entered Tuesday’s meeting at a luxury hotel.
