US resumes military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine

13/3/2025 6:03

By agreeing to

Washington's ceasefire proposal, Ukraine achieved some major

short-term objectives, not least salvaging a tattered

relationship with President Donald Trump, though the underlying

issues at the heart of the conflict with Russia remain

unresolved.

Washington resumed military aid and intelligence sharing in a

boost for Kyiv on Tuesday after more than eight hours of talks

in the Saudi city of Jeddah about ending the war with Russia.

After Ukraine agreed to a U.S. proposal of an interim 30-day

ceasefire, the United States said it will take the offer to

Russia, putting the ball back in Moscow's court and easing what

had been mounting pressure on Kyiv.



Reuters spoke to a senior member of the Ukrainian delegation

in Jeddah, two senior former officials, a lawmaker, a source

close to the government and a military analyst for this

article.

The bilateral meeting was the first since Zelenskiy's fraught

encounter with Trump in the Oval Office last month.



The Ukrainian delegation entered the talks with several

negotiating positions, including the idea of a "truce lite" that

would have involved a ceasefire in the air and at sea, said Ihor

Zhovkva, a senior Ukrainian official who took part in the

talks.



During the meeting, U.S. officials proposed a broader

ceasefire, he said. The Ukrainians agreed after a pause in talks

allowed the delegations to consult their leaders, President

Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters on Wednesday.



"For us, it was very important to have the understanding

that the truce would go along with two very important things: an

immediate lifting of the pause of military assistance and

intelligence sharing," Zhovkva, Zelenskiy's foreign affairs

adviser, told Reuters by telephone.



"It was done immediately," he said, describing these steps

among the "most significant results" of the talks and joint

statement.



He praised the overall "constructive" atmosphere of the

meeting that he said went well beyond repairing bilateral

relations to coordinated action between equal partners.



The talks did not include much about territory, with the

ceasefire a first step in the peace process, he said.



Russia holds just under one-fifth of Ukraine.



"Ukraine will never cede any territories. It's very simple.

You cannot have this statement or declaration, no one can have

it because it needs a change of the constitution," Zhovkva

said.







FUNDAMENTALS UNCHANGED



Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a military analyst who was defence

minister from 2019 to 2020, noted the marked improvement in U.S.

relations.



But he cautioned that the challenging underlying

fundamentals remained, weeks after the United States began its

direct diplomatic engagement with Russia and upended U.S. policy

on the war.



"We still don't understand what Russia will want in exchange

for peace. We still don't know whether the U.S. will take the

Ukrainian position or the position that Ukraine's opinion is

basically not as important as Russia's," he said.



Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Russia and

Eurasia programme at London-based think tank Chatham House,

flagged that and other risks.



"Putting in place a cementing of the front lines in their

current position without any long-term guarantee of ensuring

that the war will actually come to an end, risks rewarding

Russia by making the current zone of control permanent and

freezing the conflict in place as opposed to resolving it," he

said.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was awaiting details from

Washington about the ceasefire proposal, while senior Moscow

sources said a deal would have to take account of Russia's

advances and address its concerns.



But a source close to the Ukrainian government said the mood

in the Zelenskiy camp after the talks was upbeat and that there

was a feeling Russia had been caught off guard by the ceasefire

proposal.



"It's a strong check on the chess board," the source said.



A former senior Ukrainian security official who requested

anonymity said things had so far developed predictably in terms

of a phased peace process.



"However, it is likely that Russia will derail the

agreement, and we will have to watch the American reaction. The

Russians may offend Trump with their outbursts. And then we will

have a chance for strong arms assistance."