Ukraine agreed Tuesday to a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its brutal war with Russia, and the U.S. said it would immediately lift the pause on aid and intelligence to Ukraine, Trump administration officials announced in a sign of diplomatic thawing after a period of intense strain between Washington and Kyiv.
Top officials from the two countries met in Saudi Arabia to hash out plans for Ukraine and Russia to end their 3-year-old war. U.S. officials held a similar session weeks earlier with Russian officials as President Trump pressed his campaign for a quick end to the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
The Kremlin gave no immediate reaction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who headed the American delegation in the Saudi city of Jeddah, told reporters that the “ball is now in Russia’s court” to nail down at least a temporary pause to the fighting. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it expected to be briefed by the U.S. about the talks in the “next few days.”
The Trump administration announced it was immediately rescinding its pause on military aid and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, imposed after a contentious White House meeting between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy late last month.
Military analysts said an extended cutoff of American support could have had dire consequences for Ukrainian forces battling an invading Russian army along a 600-mile front in Ukraine’s south and east.
“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.”
Mr. Trump said he expects to discuss the lengthy discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week because it “takes two to tango.” Diplomats said the 30-day ceasefire can be extended if both parties agree.
“Ukraine has agreed to [the ceasefire proposal], and hopefully, Russia will agree,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
The war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago has continued during the first peace talks. Hours before the Jeddah meeting began, an attack of more than 300 Ukraine drones killed two and injured more than a dozen in Moscow. Russia claimed to have pushed back a Ukrainian occupying force that seized and held a significant chunk of Russian territory in the border region of Kursk.
The joint statement said the officials discussed the importance of humanitarian relief, including the exchange of prisoners of war, civilian detainees and children, but a deal to give U.S. development companies access to Ukraine’s vast strategic mineral reserves, heavily touted by Mr. Trump, remained unsigned.
The two sides 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,” the joint statement said.
In a televised statement after the talks, Mr. Zelenskyy called the joint proposal “a positive step” that his government would support. “Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same. If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately,” he said.
‘Positive’ news
Mr. Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz led the American delegation.
“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,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Mr. Waltz told reporters in Jeddah that the talks addressed “substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end.” Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy to the talks, is expected to travel to Moscow in the coming days to gauge the reaction of the Putin government. Mr. Rubio is set to discuss the negotiations with fellow foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
“The ball is now in their court,” Mr. Rubio said of the Russians. “But again, the president’s objective here is, No. 1, 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 agree to the deal is “real negotiations … that ensure the stability and security of Ukraine for the long term.”
“If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” he said.
He said the mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine was not “the subject of” the meeting but was still on the table.
Mr. Trump’s unilateral overtures to Russia and the visible deterioration of ties to Ukraine have unnerved many of Washington’s allies in Europe and Russia hawks in Congress, who have strongly backed Ukraine since the fighting began in February 2022. Some top European figures offered a cautious welcome to news of apparent diplomatic progress in Jeddah.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a statement on X that the European Union “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.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was waiting for a full briefing on the Jeddah proposal but suggested that Russia feels it has the upper hand as negotiations gear up.
“You always need to hope for the best but still be prepared for the worst, and we should always be ready to defend our interests,” Mr. Peskov told reporters in comments carried by the Kommersant newspaper. “Many people are rushing to put on rose-tinted spectacles and are saying that the Americans will now stop providing weapons or have already done so, that [billionaire entrepreneur Elon] Musk will turn all the communications systems off, and everything will work out for us. But it will work out for us, anyway.”
• David R. Sands contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
