Ukraine Tuesday backed a U.S. plan for a 30-day ceasefire if Russia agrees, a deal that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said puts “the ball in (Putin’s) court.”
In a breakthrough after daylong talks in Saudi Arabia, American officials said the Ukrainian delegation backed the plan for a pause to hostilities in the worst ground war in Europe since World War II.
“Ukraine is ready to start talking and stop shooting,” Rubio said in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
American diplomats will now take the proposal to their Russian counterparts.
“We hope that they’ll say yes, that they’ll say yes to peace,” Rubio said. “The ball is now in their court.”
The U.S. agreed to immediately end the pause to weapons shipments and intelligence sharing with Kyiv that was implemented after the disastrous White House meeting between President Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy issue a statement backing the ceasefire agreement, which calls for a temporary halt to all fighting in the three-year conflict.
He said the response of strongman Vladimir Putin would show the world whether Russia is really ready to end the war it started when it invaded its neighbor in 2022.
“Ukraine is ready for peace,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia must show its readiness to end the war or continue the war.”
Rubio also said the Russians’ response would clarify whether a viable path to peace exists.
“If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” America’s top diplomat said.
There was no immediate reaction from Russia. Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel later this week to Moscow, where he could meet with Putin.
Trump said he will try to speak to Putin about the ceasefire proposal this week. “It takes two to tango, as they say,” Trump said.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials also said they would keep discussing a proposed deal on Ukraine’s mineral wealth, although that was not the main focus of the Saudi talks.
For Ukraine, the deal marks a major step towards repairing its crucial alliance with the U.S. after Trump signaled a major shift away from strong U.S. support for its embattled ally.
Trump and Zelenskyy traded barbs in a remarkable White House meeting that led the Republican president to suggest Ukraine is more of an obstacle to peace than Russia.
Trump ordered a halt to military aid and intelligence sharing, a move that Moscow hailed as a major diplomatic victory.
Even if the two sides agree to a ceasefire, there is no guarantee they can forge a lasting peace.
Russia is demanding Ukraine hand over several provinces that it annexed in wartime moves that the international community has rejected. It wants Ukraine to agree not to seek to join NATO.
Ukraine wants its powerful neighbor to retreat to its internationally recognized borders, which would mean giving up historically Russian-dominated regions like Crimea and the mineral-rich Donbas.
Russia mounted a lightning-quick offensive in the first days of the invasion in 2022, nearly reaching Kyiv. But Ukrainian forces quicky recovered big chunks of lost territory.
The war settled into a brutal battle of attrition with limited movement along a frontline stretching for 600 miles through muck of eastern Ukraine.
Russia has recently stepped up attacks in hopes of breaking the long stalemate, especially since it smelled an advantage with Trump pressuring Zelenskyy to compromise to win peace.