Ukraine war briefing: Ball is now in Russia’s court, says Rubio, after Kyiv accepts ceasefire proposal
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US secretary of state says Ukraine ready to stop fighting but if Moscow refuses, ‘we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace’. What we know on day 1,113

*   **Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said the ball was “now in Russia’s court”** after ****. “If they \ say no then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” he said. “Ukrainians are ready to stop the fighting, they’re ready to stop the shooting, they’re ready to get to the table,” Rubio told reporters in Jeddah, after negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
    
*   **An influential Russian lawmaker, commenting on a ceasefire proposal agreed between US and Ukrainian officials, said on Wednesday that any deal would be on Moscow’s terms, not Washington’s.** “Russia is advancing \, and therefore it will be different with Russia,” said Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, in a post on Telegram. “Any agreements – with all the understanding of the need for compromise – on our terms, not on American. And this is not boasting, but understanding that real agreements are still being written there, at the front. Which they should understand in Washington, too.”
    
*   **The US would “immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine”,** **said US national security adviser Mike Waltz.** “We’ve gone from if the war is going to end to how the war is going to end,” Waltz told reporters alongside Rubio. **Waltz, who said he would speak in the coming days with his Russian counterpart, credited the Ukrainians with agreeing on the need to “end the killing, to end the tragic meat-grinder of people and national treasure”. He added: “The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear: that they share President Trump’s vision for peace.”**
    
*   **Hours after Ukraine’s declaration, Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv, with mayor Vitali Klitschko saying air defences were engaged in repelling the strikes.** Strikes were also reported by the RIA news agency on Kharkiv. RIA cited the Ukrainian ministry of digital transformation, which said air raid alerts were issued in Kyiv ten regions.
    
*   **Washington also revived plans for a  that could give the US a 50% stake in revenues from the sale of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.** Trump has said that the deal would provide implicit security guarantees by linking US economic interests with Ukraine’s security.
    
*   **British prime minister Keir Starmer congratulated Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a “remarkable breakthrough” with the ceasefire proposal.** “This is an important moment for peace in Ukraine and we now all need to redouble our efforts to get to a lasting and secure peace as soon as possible. As both American and Ukrainian delegations have said, the ball is now in the Russian court. Russia must now agree to a ceasefire and an end to the fighting too.” He said he would convene a leaders meeting on Saturday to discuss the next steps, adding: “We are ready to help bring an end to this war in a just and permanent way that allows Ukraine to enjoy its freedom.”
    
*   **Ukraine’s battlefield positions have been under heavy pressure, particularly in Russia’s Kursk region** where Moscow’s forces have launched a push to flush out Kyiv’s troops, which had been trying to hold a patch of land as a bargaining chip.  
    On Tuesday, Ukraine launched its  and the surrounding region,  after a steady stream of Russian missile and drone attacks, one of which killed 14 people on Saturday. The Tuesday attack, in which 337 drones were downed over Russia, killed at least three employees of a meat warehouse and caused a brief shutdown at Moscow’s four airports.
    
*   **Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday that he informed a number of European counterparts about the “milestone” talks with the US** where Kyiv said it was ready to support Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. Sybiha, who took part in the Jeddah talks, said that afterwards he talked to several European foreign ministers, including British foreign secretary David Lammy and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, “about the outcomes of the milestone meeting”.
    
*   **Ukrainian officials told the US that European partners must participate in any peace negotiations, Sybiha said.** “We adhere to the position: no decisions on the long-term security of Europe without Europe,” Sybiha said in a social media post. On Wednesday, Sybiha will be in Warsaw for talks with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement.
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