Ukraine and Russia Agree to Ceasefire in Principle

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz met with their Ukrainian counterparts in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday for a seven-hour summit. The summit concluded with both sides agreeing in principle to a month-long ceasefire, but no specifics were identified about how the war might end.

Rubio said his team would contact Russia later that day to see if they would agree to the ceasefire. "We're going to bring it to them directly," Rubio told reporters. "We're going to say that Ukraine is prepared to stop all battlefield activity and begin an immediate process of negotiating an enduring end of the war."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Tuesday's talks as constructive and suggested that a 30-day ceasefire be used to negotiate a broader peace deal. "I am very serious (about a ceasefire) and for me it is important to end the war," Zelenskyy said.

Putin has so far offered zero concessions to end the war, nor has Trump asked for any. Instead, Trump has suggested that Ukraine may have to give up the fifth of its territory controlled by Russia, while agreeing never to join NATO.

If Russia agrees to the ceasefire, one thing that will need to be determined is who both sides trust to be on the ground monitoring small arms fire. Russia has a well-documented history of violating ceasefires with Ukraine over the past decade.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the progress made in the talks, but some hard-line voices in Moscow appeared wary or outright hostile toward the deal.

Rubio and Waltz emerged with the proposal after around seven hours of talks with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Yermak, the chief of Zelenskyy's presidential office. They agreed to resume the flow of U.S. aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine. Ukrainian officials also said they would be willing to enforce an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking. And now it'll be up to them to say yes or no," the secretary of state told reporters Tuesday. "If they say no, then we'll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here."

Even if Putin were to agree to this interim détente, there remains a gulf between the positions of Russia and Ukraine, which wants security guarantees before signing a ceasefire with a giant neighbor that has violated past agreements.