The USA has agreed to renew navy assist and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv expressed “readiness” to simply accept a 30-day ceasefire in its battle with Russia.
The 2 international locations issued a joint assertion after officers met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, saying that Ukraine was open to the US proposal “to enact a right away, interim 30-day ceasefire which may be prolonged by mutual settlement of the events”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Telegram that the ceasefire proposal would “set up an entire ceasefire for 30 days, not solely relating to missiles, drones and bombs, not solely within the Black Sea, but additionally alongside your complete entrance line”.
US President Donald Trump stated he hoped Russia would comply with the ceasefire plan, signalling that the US will maintain a gathering with Russia afterward Tuesday or Wednesday.
Following the progress made in talks, the US stated that it might “instantly raise the pause on intelligence sharing and resume safety help” to Kyiv, which it had suspended final week, successfully hobbling Ukraine’s capability to trace Russian troop actions, defend in opposition to missile strikes and perform assaults.
The suspension got here after a blow-up final month between Trump and Zelenskyy, who had travelled to Washington to debate a uncommon earth minerals deal, which might see the US achieve entry to the profitable sources in Ukraine.
The joint assertion indicated that the deal was again on the desk, with the 2 international locations set to “conclude as quickly as potential a complete settlement for creating Ukraine’s crucial mineral sources to develop Ukraine’s economic system and assure Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and safety”.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher famous that the joint assertion didn’t embrace any point out of the specific safety ensures that Zelenskyy had been searching for throughout his contentious assembly with Trump on the Oval Workplace.
“However these [security guarantees] look like lacking in the intervening time. Maybe that’s one thing that may be mentioned, though we all know that Donald Trump is absolutely, actually in opposition to that concept of specific safety ensures for Ukraine,” he stated.
‘Sure or no’
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the ball was now in Russia’s court docket.
“We’re going to inform them that is what’s on the desk. Ukraine is able to cease taking pictures and begin speaking. And now it’ll be as much as them to say sure or no,” he stated. “If they are saying no, then we’ll sadly know what the obstacle is to peace right here.”
US Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz added: “The Ukrainian delegation at the moment made one thing very clear: that they share President Trump’s imaginative and prescient for peace.”
Waltz stated negotiators “obtained into substantive particulars on how this warfare goes to completely finish”, together with long-term safety ensures.
Zelenskyy stated on Telegram that Ukraine was “prepared for peace” and that it now fell to the US to “persuade” Russia.
“Ukraine is prepared for peace. Russia should present its readiness to finish the warfare or proceed the warfare. It’s time for the total reality,” he stated.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years in the past and now holds round a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, together with Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated he’s open to discussing a peace deal. However he has dominated out territorial concessions, saying Ukraine should withdraw absolutely from 4 Ukrainian areas claimed and partly managed by Russia.
The talks in Saudi Arabia began solely hours after Ukraine launched its largest drone assault on Moscow and the encircling area, claiming that it had struck an oil refinery close to the Russian capital and a facility in Russia’s Oryol area.
The assault, through which 337 drones have been downed over Russia, killed no less than three staff of a meat warehouse and brought about a brief shutdown at Moscow’s 4 airports, Russian officers stated.