KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. arms deliveries to Ukraine resumed Wednesday, officials said, a day after the Trump administration lifted its suspension of military aid for Kyiv in its fight against Russia, and Ukrainian officials signaled that they were open to a 30-day ceasefire backed by Washington.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that it’s important not to “get ahead” of the question of responding to the ceasefire proposal. He told reporters that Moscow is awaiting “detailed information” about it from the U.S. and suggested that Russia must get that first before it can take a position.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the 30-day ceasefire would allow the sides “to fully prepare a step-by-step plan for ending the war, including security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Technical questions over how to effectively monitor a truce along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where small but deadly drones are a common sight, are “very important,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine have already resumed through a Polish logistics center, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Poland announced Wednesday. The deliveries go through a NATO and U.S. hub in the eastern Polish city of Rzeszow that’s has been used to ferry Western weapons into neighboring Ukraine about 70 kilometers (45 miles) away.
The American military help is vital for Ukraine’s shorthanded and weary army, which is having a tough time keeping Russia’s bigger military force at bay. But for Moscow, more American aid spells potentially more difficulty in achieving its war aims and likely will be a tough sell in Moscow for Washington’s peace efforts.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington will pursue “multiple points of contacts” with Russia to see if President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate an end to the war. He declined to give details.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was awaiting details from Washington on the 30-day ceasefire proposal.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday said it was carefully studying the results of the meeting and would await details from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested a reporter was getting “a little ahead” of himself by asking if Russia intended to tie a ceasefire proposal to the lifting of international sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
“Rubio and Waltz said that they would pass on detailed information to us through various channels about the essence of the conversation that took place in Jeddah. First, we must receive this information,” Peskov said.
Rubio said the United States was hoping for a positive response, and that if the answer was “no” then it would tell Washington a lot about the Kremlin’s true intentions.
He said there would be contacts with Moscow on Wednesday, that Europe would have to be involved in any security guarantee for Ukraine, and that the sanctions Europe has imposed would also be on the table.