Donald Trump will challenge Vladimir Putin to agree to a 30-day ceasefire after securing Ukraine’s approval for his plan to bring about an end to the war.
The United States President is expected to call his Russian counterpart this week and said “it takes two to tango” after Kyiv’s offer to lay down its arms in what would be the first negotiated pause in fighting since Moscow’s invasion three years ago.
Speaking in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after talks with a Ukrainian delegation lasted more than eight hours, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, said that the “ball is now in Russia’s court” and that he hoped “Russia will answer yes as quickly as possible”.
“If they say no, then we’ll know unfortunately what is the impediment to peace here.”
Today NZT, “massive shelling” hit Dnipro, while four people were killed in Odesa, according to local press, as Russia gave no indication it would agree to the truce.
In the Saudi capital, Ukraine expressed its readiness for a ceasefire after the US agreed to immediately restart intelligence-sharing and weapons deliveries.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not present at the talks, said the agreement showed that “Ukraine is ready for peace”.
“Russia must show its readiness to end the war or continue the war. It is time for the full truth.”
Zelenskyy, who has been at loggerheads with the Trump Administration after a disastrous White House summit last month, made sure to personally thank the President for the move towards peace.
“I want to thank President Trump for the constructiveness of our teams’ conversation,” he said, adding that the US must now “convince” Putin to sign up to the deal.
The terms of the ceasefire went further than a joint British-and-French proposal for a halt in the fighting at sea and in the air, Zelenskyy noted.
The US proposal would not only stop “missile, drone, and bomb attacks” and the conflict in the Black Sea, but bring an end to fighting “along the entire frontline”.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accompanying Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a guard of honour at the Royal Palace in Jeddah on March 10, 2025. Photo / AFP
One Ukrainian MP labelled the proposed ceasefire a “great result” for Ukraine.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, the MP for Odesa, told the Telegraph: “We need peace, it’s a real breakthrough. The most important thing is that we have a real result in military aid and intelligence being resumed.”
Goncharenko, whose People’s Deputy Party is in opposition to Zelenskyy’s Government, said it provided Putin with a “real dilemma” but he added he had “no confidence” that the Russian President would sign a deal.
“Now we will see the true face of Putin, I am sure he doesn’t want peace. If he starts to play games with Trump, it will be time for Trump to put pressure on him. He only understands force.”
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “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.”
In Washington, Trump said “hopefully Russia will agree” to the ceasefire and he announced that he had invited Zelenskyy back to the White House.
A Ukrainian official said the proposed ceasefire was “partly” designed to call Putin’s bluff over whether he was genuinely committed to peace talks.
“Let’s see what happens, but I give it less than a 50% chance that they [Russia] will agree,” the official told the Telegraph.
It came as Emmanuel Macron, the French President, told European military chiefs they had to “move from a concept to a plan” for “creditable security guarantees” for Ukraine as peace negotiations were accelerated.
“This is the moment when Europe must pull out all the stops, for Ukraine, and for itself,” Macron said at the meeting of more than 30 members of the Anglo-French “coalition of the willing”.
At the close of the Riyadh talks, a joint Ukraine-US statement announced that both countries’ presidents hoped to sign a mineral resources deal as soon as possible.
Zelenskyy left Washington on February 28 without signing the deal, which would see the US commit to extracting Ukraine’s natural resources in return for a 50% share in future profits.
Before the ceasefire deal was announced, Kyiv launched its largest drone attack on Russia since the war began, with Moscow claiming it intercepted 337 drones targeted at the mainland.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said 91 drones were shot down over Moscow, but three men died after some broke through to strike flats, a railway station, and an agricultural distribution centre.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, will travel to the Russian capital later this week for a second personal meeting with Putin.
Western intelligence sources have stated that the Russian leader appears unwilling to bend on his “maximalist” goals of dismantling the Kyiv regime.
Bloomberg reported that Putin had no intention of dropping extreme demands on land, Ukrainian neutrality, and the rejection of European peacekeepers. He was prepared to continue the war if his demands were not met, Western security officials told the news agency.
Senator Lindsey Graham said that should Moscow refuse to agree to the ceasefire, the US should increase sanctions on Russia.
Trump said this month that Putin had told him he would accept a European-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine after a ceasefire was agreed. But today, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, repeated his rejection of the idea in the only official response given to the plans so far.
“What will the peacekeepers protect? The remnants of the Kyiv Nazi regime?” he said.
Russia’s Army today made new gains in the western region of Kursk, according to the Defence Ministry, accelerating its push to drive out Ukrainian forces who have been clinging to a slice of Russian territory since last August.
Viktor Sobolev, a former Russian Army commander and Duma representative, said he believed the Kremlin would reject the US proposal.
“The US will rearm Ukraine in 30 days of ceasefire and start the war anew – Russia will not go for it. I think that this is completely unacceptable.”
However, Maria Zakharova, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti: “We will not rule out contacts with US representatives over the next few days”.
