New York/Washington, 12 March

President Donald Trump said he is hopeful that Russia will agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine even as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday termed it as a positive step and said it is up to the US to convince Russia to accept it.

Senior officials from the US and Ukraine held talks in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday focussing on ending the over three year war between Moscow and Kyiv, which gave an indication to accept a 30-day ceasefire.

“A while ago, Ukraine has agreed to the ceasefire. Now we go to Russia and hopefully President Putin will agree to it also,” Trump said here soon after the Jeddah announcement.

“If we get Russia to do it, that will be great. If we can't, we keep going on and on and people are going to get killed,” he said in another video posted on his TruthSocial account.

He also spoke about meetings with Russia soon, in an apparent reference to Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, who is likely to visit Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Zelenskyy said the American side understands his country's arguments and considers their proposals and added that he is “grateful to President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams.”

“Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal—we see it as a positive step and are ready to take it. Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same. If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately,” Zelenskyy said hours after the announcement came from Jeddah.

“During today’s talks, the US side proposed taking an even bigger first step—a 30-day full interim ceasefire, not only stopping missile, drone, and bomb attacks, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line,” the Ukrainian president said in a video, text for which was posted on his official X handle too.

Asserting that Ukraine's position remains absolutely clear, he said, “Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war, and we want to do everything to achieve it as soon as possible and in a reliable way—so that war does not return.”

Zelenskyy also talked about the three key points that his team proposed during the meeting with the Americans in Jeddah: silence in the skies—stopping missile strikes, bombs, and long-range drone attacks; silence at sea; real confidence-building measures in this whole situation, “in which diplomacy is ongoing, which primarily means the release of prisoners of war and detainees—both military and civilian—and the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly transferred to Russia.”

There has been no official reaction from Russia as yet.

Meanwhile, soon after the announcement coming in from Jeddah, the Trump government lifted its suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, measures that were imposed a week ago in an apparent effort to push Zelenskyy for talks about ending the war.