‘Takes two to tango’: Trump to pressure Putin on Ukraine peace

Washington will pressure Russia to agree to the 30-day ceasefire plan drawn up by US and Ukrainian officials, with Donald Trump saying he’ll speak to Vladimir Putin this week.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky gives a video address about Ukraine's ceasefire with Russia. Picture: YouTube.

Washington will pressure Russia to agree to the 30-day ceasefire plan drawn up by American and Ukrainian officials at the end of marathon talks in Saudi Arabia, with Donald Trump declaring: “It takes two to tango.”

As military aid began to flow into Ukraine after Kyiv agreed to implement the truce, the US President said he hoped to speak to Vladimir Putin this week.

Speaking to reporters at the White House after the ceasefire plan was announced in Jeddah, Mr Trump said: “Ukraine has agreed to (a ceasefire). Hopefully President Putin will agree to that also.”

He added: “I’ll talk to Vladimir Putin, it takes two to tango. Now we have to go to Russia and hopefully Putin will agree to [the ceasefire] also and we can get this show on the road.

“We want to get that war over with.”

Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has already met with Mr Putin, is expected to visit Moscow later this week.

Emerging from the talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukraine was “ready to stop shooting and start talking,” adding the ball “is now in Russia’s court.”

The ceasefire plan, which is contingent on Russian acceptance, was outlined in a statement issued by Ukraine and the US on Wednesday (AEDT) which confirmed that the pause on military aid and intelligence imposed by Washington would be immediately lifted.

“Today we made an offer which the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that’s enduring and sustainable and accounts for their interests, their security, their ability to prosper as a nation,” said Mr Rubio.

“We will take this offer now to the Russians and we hope that they’ll say ‘yes,’ that they’ll say ‘yes’ to peace. The ball is now in their court,” he added.

In his daily evening address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ceasefire was “more than what Ukraine had hoped for.”

Mr Zelensky said his officials had wanted three key objectives: an end to missile and drone strikes, the release of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly removed to Russia.

“During today’s talks, the US side proposed taking an even bigger first step — a 30-day full interim ceasefire, stopping missile, drone and bomb attacks, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line,” Mr Zelensky said.

An agreement between the two countries on a deal for the US to have access to rare minerals in Ukraine wasn’t signed but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two countries would try to bring the deal to “finality.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz (R) arrive to speak with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah.

State Duma deputy Mikhai Sheremeti told the TASS news agency Moscow was “interested in settlement but will not allow itself to be deceived.”

The Tuesday meeting was the first high-level talks between US and Ukrainian officials since a combative Oval Office encounter in which President Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being unwilling to negotiate a peace settlement with Moscow.

Following that White House session, Trump had cut off arms shipments and reduced the flow of intelligence to Kyiv. That move was followed by an accelerated Russian and North Korean campaign to roll back Ukrainian gains in Kursk, a portion of Russian territory seized by Kyiv’s forces last year.

Hours before the talks in Jeddah began, Ukraine launched the largest drone attack on Moscow of the war, targeting the Russian capital and other regions. Moscow authorities said the attack led to at least one death and injured 14 people.

Mr Zelensky had insisted he was ready to pursue peace talks, but had said that Ukraine would need Western-backed security guarantees to ensure that a prospective deal holds, assurances that Trump had been reluctant to provide.

And in recent days Ukrainian officials have suggested that an initial step toward peace could be a ceasefire on Russian and Ukrainian air and naval attacks.

US officials hadn’t said what specific steps the Ukrainians need to take for American military support to resume, but had suggested it would need to go beyond a ceasefire.

“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them and what they would need in return,” Mr Rubio said before the ceasefire announcement. “And then find out what the Russian position is in that regard. And that’ll give us a pretty good assessment of how far apart we truly are.”

Mr Rubio and Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, were representing the US in the Tuesday meeting. After the talks Mr Waltz said the question was now “how” not “if” the war would end.

The Ukrainian side was represented by Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s top adviser, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Pavlo Palisa, a Ukrainian officer who works for the presidential administration.

Before the start of the meeting both sides expressed cautious optimism. Mr Yermak said Ukraine wanted to achieve a lasting peace while stressing that some form of security guarantees would ultimately be necessary. Rubio made a thumbs-up gesture on his way to the meeting.

The selection of Jeddah as a setting for the US-Ukraine talks appears to be an effort by the Trump administration to convey that it is an impartial arbiter in the conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour more than three years ago.

Instead of travelling to Kyiv like then-President Biden and his top aides, Mr Trump’s team was meeting with their counterparts on neutral ground in Saudi Arabia as they did with the Russians in Riyadh last month.

Dow Jones, AFP