Zensky says that Ukraine has shown: “We want a quick peace”

After hours of negotiations that ended with Ukrainian officials who agreed A proposed cease-fire of 30 days with RussiaOnly at the flight home did they receive the news that they wanted to hear the most: American military aid flowed again.

“I will only say that there is no better reward for such a crazy day than to learn, while they were already on the plane, a short dry confirmation” that military help had restarted, Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, wrote on social media After conversations with American officials in Saudi Arabia.

The resumption of the deliveries of American weapons and the sharing of information was a result of The meeting on Tuesday In the coastal town of Jeddah. Ukraine’s acceptance of the proposed ceasefires of the Trump government-and Russia does the same the other.

Although Ukrainians were deeply skeptical that Russia would accept the proposal for a ceasefire, the involuntary of critical American aid was generally seen as a positive development that could help restore the torn relationship between Kiev and Washington.

On Wednesday, President VolodyMyr Zensky van Ukraine apparently made sure to be publicly grateful to President Trump, after being accused of not appreciating it during the disastrous Oval Office meeting last month with the US President who led to The suspension of American aid.

“The US wanted us to show that we wanted a quick peace, and we showed it,” Mr. Zensky told reporters in Kiev, the capital.

He said that Mr. Trump had played a role in the conversations of Verre, who spoke to the American delegation halfway through the negotiations, while the Ukrainian leader had contact with his. It took more than eight hours for the American and Ukrainian officers to reach an agreement.

“Now the ball is in the Russian court,” Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday, following comments from State Secretary Marco Rubio after the meeting.

The Kremlin has Not told if it will agree To the 30-day ceasefire. If Russia does not, Mr. Zelensky said, he expects “strong movements” from the Trump government.

“I don’t know any details yet, but we are talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” he said reporters.

His comments seemed to give the hope that the White House, that even before the sudden suspension of the aid, had been more closer to the Kremlin, was perhaps able to end the pressure to end the fighting.

Nevertheless, the broader Ukrainian skepticism is informed by history: Russia has violated two earlier ceasefires, reached in 2014 and 2015, and denied the intention to invade only a few days before this did not invade in 2022.

“In my opinion it will be as before when they introduced the ceasefire,” said Oleksandr Kovinko, a soldier fighting in the east of Ukraine. “We stick to it, the enemy does not. And how it will actually be, it is difficult to imagine and predict. “

And for the Ukrainians who feel betrayed by the recent movements of the Trump government, there was a fear that the United States may not be a fair broker.

“I have no hope that the US has not completely shifted to Russia,” said Yulia Podkydydysheva, 31, a charity worker who was reached by telephone in Chernivtsi, in the west of Ukraine.

Everyone, Mrs. Podkydysheva said, could use 30 days “to breathe some air and see the light” after three years of relentless bombing. But she doesn’t think peace will last.

“It will most likely be about the next round of struggle,” she said.

While questions persisted whether the Kremlin would eventually accept the proposal, the war raged further.

Fierce fights were reported up and down in the Eastern Front in Ukraine.

And Russian troops fought against Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in Russia while retaining their bombing of military and civil infrastructure in Ukraine. The Air Force of Ukraine said that Russia launched three ballistic missiles and 133 strike drones at the end of Tuesday and beginning on Wednesday.

One of the missiles hit a civil ship in the port city of Odesa around the same time as the announcement of the ceasefire in Saudi Arabia and killed four crew members, according to the Ukrainian authorities. A rocket attack later killed one person and injured more than a dozen others in the city of Kryvyi Rih in Central Ukraine – the hometown of the Lord Zensky.

Liubov Soludko contributed reporting.