Ukraine agreed Tuesday to a proposal of a 30-day ceasefire and the U.S. will immediately lift the pause on aid and intelligence to Ukraine, Trump administration officials announced.
Officials from the two countries met in Saudi Arabia to hash out plans for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia to end their three-year-long war.
“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace,” a joint statement said. “The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.”
President Trump suspended aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s combative Oval Office visit on Feb. 28.
Mr. Trump said now he will talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin because it “takes two to tango” and that he expects to discuss it with him later this week.
“Ukraine has agreed to [the ceasefire proposal], and hopefully Russia will agree to it,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
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Officials from the U.S. and Ukraine are in Jeddah. The meeting came just hours after more than 300 Ukraine drones attacked inside Russia, leaving two dead and more than a dozen injured.
The joint statement said the officials discussed the importance of humanitarian relief, including the exchange of prisoners of war, civilian detainees and children.
They also agreed to work out “a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the meeting between U.S. and Ukraine officials was going well.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz were at the meeting trying to hammer out the peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“The news we’ve received from that meeting throughout the day, and the president has been briefed on, is positive. This meeting has been productive, Ms. Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Mr. Waltz told reporters in Jeddah that the talks also addressed “substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end.”
“The ball is now in their court,” Mr. Rubio said of the Russians. “But again, the president’s objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.”
Mr. Rubio said the next step after the Russians say “yes” to the deal is “real negotiations… that ensures the stability and security of Ukraine for the long term.”
He said the mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine was not “the subject of” the hours-long meeting between officials, but that the deal is still on the table.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a statement on X that the EU “welcomes today’s news from Jeddah on the U.S.-Ukraine talks, including the proposal for a ceasefire agreement and the resumption of U.S. intelligence sharing and security assistance.”
She called it a “positive development” and said “the ball is now in Russia’s court.”
She said the EU is “ready to play its full part, together with its partners, in the upcoming peace negotiations.”
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
