Ukraine-US accord on a ceasefire proposal puts the onus on Vladimir Putin

By Kateryna Chursina, Henry Meyer and Natalia Drozdiak

 

Less than two weeks after Donald Trump lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an Oval Office confrontation, the US president put the pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire agreement hammered out with Zelenskyy’s advisers. 

The accord reached in Saudi Arabia by US and Ukrainian negotiators for a 30-day halt in the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, now hinges on Vladimir Putin, who may have little incentive to abide by it.

 

“Hopefully President Putin will agree to that also, and we can get this show on the road,” Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday. “It takes two to tango.”

 

Terms of the proposal were announced after eight hours of meetings in Jeddah between Ukrainian and American officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. In return for Ukraine’s acceptance of the US proposal, the Trump administration agreed to lift its freeze on military aid and intelligence for Kyiv.

 

It was a deal under which Ukraine managed to get back in Trump’s good graces after the disastrous Oval Office meeting that descended into a shouting match between Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In this round, the Ukrainian delegation affirmed its desire for peace but otherwise made few concessions. 

“It’s quite a smart move by the Ukrainians,” said Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at RAND. “They are putting the onus on Russia to either accept an arrangement that they otherwise would be completely opposed to or risk Trump’s ire.”

Putin’s Demands

Trump said US officials will speak to their Russian counterparts on Wednesday and that it’s possible he’ll talk to Putin this week. But Putin may attach his own set of conditions that would be difficult for Ukraine and its European allies to accept. 

 

Ceasefire accords after Putin’s initial incursions into Ukraine collapsed in 2014 and 2015 over Russian violations, leaving a simmering conflict until Russia’s invasion in 2022, and Russia has already issued its own set of demands for a longterm accord. 

 

Moscow has rejected the presence of European troops in Ukraine that could act as peacekeepers. It’s also insisting on keeping territory it’s seized, that Ukraine give up its aspiration to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that Ukraine hold a presidential election. 

 

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the accord in Jeddah a “remarkable breakthrough” and said “the ball is now in the Russian court. Russia must now agree to a ceasefire and an end to fighting too.”

 

Intense diplomacy, led by the UK, was conducted behind the scenes to help the US and Ukraine reach an agreement, according to a UK official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Instead of rejecting the US-Ukraine plan outright, Putin may try to renegotiate it or say it doesn’t apply to the territory Ukraine has seized in Russia’s Kursk region, said John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.

 

“In other words, Moscow will continue to maintain its course, and then what does the Trump administration say?” said Herbst, who’s now a senior director at the Atlantic Council. 

 

Trump, who has repeatedly said that he believes Putin wants peace, could endorse some of his demands, reopening the accord his emissaries reached. Western security officials say that Putin has been deliberately making maximalist demands because he knows they will be unacceptable to Ukraine and Europe and he’s ready to continue fighting, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

 

In Jeddah, Waltz told reporters that the Ukrainian delegation “made concrete steps and concrete proposals,” including “on how this war is going to permanently end.” The two nations said in a joint statement that they also agreed to conclude “as soon as possible” a deal that Trump has demanded for the US to share in Ukraine’s mineral development.

 

In a video address to Ukrainians, Zelenskyy said that “Ukraine is ready for peace” and “Russia must show whether it is ready to end the war or whether it continues the war.”

 

Trump dispatched Rubio and Waltz to meet with the Ukrainian delegation after the Oval Office blow-up on Feb. 28 that led to a suspension of critical military aid to Ukraine. Asked Tuesday if Zelenskyy will now be invited back to the White House, Trump said, “Sure, absolutely.”

 

Rubio and Waltz met with the Ukrainian president’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, and the country’s defense and foreign ministers, Rustem Umerov and Andrii Sybiha. 

Moscow Mission

The truce proposal comes as Ukraine is hard-pressed along the war’s frontline amid shortages of weapons and manpower. 

 

US envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet with Putin in Moscow, Bloomberg News has reported. Among incentives he can offer for Putin to accept the ceasefire is a summit meeting with Trump. 

There was no immediate response to the US-Ukraine agreement from Russian officials. But Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a think tank that advises the Kremlin, said “the way it’s worded here is unlikely to satisfy anyone.”

 

“We have said many times that there will be no truces until conditions for a lasting peace are agreed upon,” Lukyanov said. “No conditions are specified here, everything will have to be agreed upon later.”