US president Donald Trump said he hopes Russia will agree to a ceasefire plan drawn up by US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said he would invite Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to the White House.
He said he hopes the proposal can be solidified “over the next few days”, adding:
I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow, and some great conversations hopefully will ensue.
He said he will speak to Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the ceasefire proposal this week. “It takes two to tango, as they say.”
Responding to Ukraine accepting the US’s ceasefire plan, the UK’s Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “The fastest way to bring peace in Ukraine is for Putin to withdraw his troops immediately.
“I’m relieved Trump has now reversed his senseless decision to suspend intelligence-sharing and security aid. There’s no doubt it cost Ukrainian lives and emboldened Putin.
“The terrifying thing is: Trump’s so unreliable, we can’t count on him not to do it again.
“Now more than ever we must stand with Ukraine and work alongside our European partners to support a just peace, even in the absence of a reliable ally in the US.”
Poland has welcomed a deal that will immediately restore US military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine.
“We are ready as Poland, with an airport, with a hub in Rzeszow, in Jasionka, to accept this aid,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Polish foreign minister, told the TVN24 news channel.
“We maintain operational capability all the time, and we are fully prepared to resume American support.”
US president Donald Trump said he wanted to “get this show on the road” and end the war in Ukraine after the countries agreed a plan for a 30-day ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said: “Ukraine, ceasefire, Ukraine, ceasefire, just agreed to a little while ago.
“Now we have to go to Russia, and hopefully President Putin will agree to that also, and we can get this show on the road.
“We want to get that war over with.”
Seemingly referring to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s turbulent visit to the White House last month, the president said: “I think it’s a big difference between the last visit you saw in the Oval Office, and this.
“That’s a total ceasefire – Ukraine has agreed to it, and hopefully Russia will agree to it.
“We’re going to meet with them later on today and tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll be able to wipe out a deal.”
He added: “If we can get Russia to do it, that’ll be great. If we can’t, we just keep going on and people are going to get killed, lots of people.”
It’s 11pm in Kyiv, midnight in Moscow and 5pm in Washington. Here’s a recap of the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:
Ukraine said it was ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia following talks with senior US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. “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 statement by the Ukrainian and US delegation said.
The US announced it would immediately lift its restrictions on military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. US officials said they hoped the agreement would help lead to talks to end the war. The decision came more than a week after the US cut off crucial aid to Ukraine, including deliveries of military radars and ammunition, as well as information sharing, which put significant pressure on Ukraine to agree to a US-proposed deal.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Donald Trump and said Ukraine was committed to seeking a peace “so that war does not return”. “Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal – we see it as a positive step and are ready to take it,” Zelenskyy said. “Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same. If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately.”
Trump said he hoped Vladimir Putin would reciprocate and agree to the ceasefire proposal. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Moscow in the coming days to propose the ceasefire to Vladimir Putin. “Ukraine has agreed to it. And hopefully Russia will agree to it,” Trump told reporters. Trump also said he would welcome Zelenskyy back to the White House after their clash last month.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the ball was “now in Russia’s court” after the negotiations concluded. Rubio told reporters after the talks that he hoped Russia would say yes to the deal. “If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” he said.
European leaders welcomed the news of the agreement. European Council president António Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the news as a “positive development” and said the EU “is ready to play its full part”. France and its partners “remain committed to a solid and lasting peace, backed by robust security guarantees for Ukraine,” president Emmanuel Macron said.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer also welcomed the agreement. “We now all need to redouble our efforts to get to a lasting and secure peace as soon as possible,” Starmer said in a statement, adding that he would be “convening leaders this Saturday to discuss next steps”.
In other news in Europe:
Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the start of the war overnight on Monday. The Russian defence ministry reported that 337 drones were launched at Russia, including 91 targeting the Moscow region, killing three people, causing fires and disrupting flights and train services.
Portugal’s parliament rejected a motion of confidence in the centre-right government, whose prime minister Luís Montenegro is embroiled in a controversy over a possible conflict of interest.
Romania’s top court upheld a decision to ban presidential election frontrunner Călin Georgescu from standing in a rerun of the vote in May, sparking protest in Bucharest and leaving the country’s far right parties four days to find a candidate.
Voters on the vast Arctic island of Greenland are going to the polls after a dramatic election campaign that the territory’s prime minister said had been “burdened by geopolitical tensions”.
Russian and US officials could communicate with each other in the next few days, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
“We do not rule out contacts with US representatives within the next few days,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Russian state news agency Tass.
A Ukrainian presidential official has confirmed that the US has resumed military assistance to Ukraine following talks in Saudi Arabia.
Palvo Palisa, deputy head of the presidential office, said:
I have confirmation that US military assistance has been resumed. The agreements are being implemented.
French president Emmanuel Macron has also welcomed the news that Ukraine said it was ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia.
“The ball is now clearly in Russia’s court,” Macron said in a statement on X.
France and its partners remain committed to a solid and lasting peace, backed by robust security guarantees for Ukraine.
Suddenly the ball is in Russia’s court. The flow of US intelligence and military aid to Ukraine is to resume – and the Kremlin is being asked to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that Kyiv has already told the Americans it will sign up to.
It is a dizzying turnaround from the Oval Office row between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump and the apparent abandonment of the White House’s strategy to simply pressurise Ukraine into agreeing to a peace deal. Now, for the first time, Russia is being asked to make a commitment, though it is unclear what will follow if it does sign up.
Announcing the peace proposal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that he hoped Russia would accept a peace agreement “so we can get to the second phase of this, which is real negotiations”.
That may leave plenty of room for interpretation. Russia has also been pushing for a ceasefire, though the Kremlin had wanted that to be followed by elections in Ukraine, before any full negotiation about territory and Kyiv’s future security.
Ukraine, meanwhile, will want strong security guarantees to avoid a resumption of the war, involving European peacekeepers on the ground, which Russia has so far said it is against. An open question, perhaps, is whether peacekeepers could enter Ukraine during a ceasefire period, but this is speculative.
Read the full analysis: Dizzying turnaround in US-Ukraine relations leaves all eyes on Russia
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has described his meeting with senior US officials in Saudi Arabia today as a “serious step forward”.
Posting to X, Sybiha said the meeting was a step forward for the “path to peace” and the strategic Ukraine-US partnership, adding:
This is what a frank, open, and constructive dialogue brings.
He thanked his US counterpart, secretary of state Marco Rubio, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and “our Saudi friends”.
US president Donald Trump said he hopes Russia will agree to a ceasefire plan drawn up by US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said he would invite Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to the White House.
He said he hopes the proposal can be solidified “over the next few days”, adding:
I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow, and some great conversations hopefully will ensue.
He said he will speak to Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the ceasefire proposal this week. “It takes two to tango, as they say.”
The UK prime minister Keir Starmer said he “warmly” welcomes the agreement between Ukrainian and US officials after talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
A statement from Starmer reads:
I warmly welcome the agreement today in Jeddah and congratulate President Trump and President Zelenskyy for this remarkable breakthrough.This is an important moment for peace in Ukraine and we now all need to redouble our efforts to get to a lasting and secure peace as soon as possible. As both American and Ukrainian delegations have said, the ball is now in the Russian court. Russia must now agree to a ceasefire and an end to the fighting too.
H added that he will be convening virtual meeting of countries ready to support a ceasefire on Saturday “to discuss next steps”, adding:We are ready to help bring an end to this war in a just and permanent way that allows Ukraine to enjoy its freedom.
European Council president António Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen have issued a joint statement welcoming the news from Jeddah on the US-Ukraine talks.
“This is a positive development that can be a step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine,” they said.
“The ball is now in Russia’s court.
The EU is ready to play its full part, together with its partners, in the upcoming peace negotiations.
Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk said Europe “stands ready to help reach a just and lasting peace” after the joint US-Ukraine announcement that Kyiv is ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire with Russia.
Posting to X, Tusk wrote:
It seems like the Americans and Ukrainians have taken an important step towards peace. And Europe stands ready to help reach a just and lasting peace.
We reported earlier that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv is ready to accept as US proposal for a “30-day full interim ceasefire”.
Zelenskyy said he received a report from the Ukrainian delegation on the meeting with US officials in Saudi Arabia.
“ The discussion lasted most of the day and was good and constructive,” he said. “Our teams were able to discuss many important details.”
Here’s Zelenskyy’s full video statement, posted to X:
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
