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Ukraine Backs US Proposal For 30-Day Ceasefire In War With Russia

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1 year ago

March 12, 2025

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Lithuania's President (not in picture) in Vilnius, Lithuania, on January 10, 2024. (Photo by PETRAS MALUKAS / AFP) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Photo by PETRAS MALUKAS / AFP)

Ukraine endorsed an American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in pivotal talks in Jeddah on Tuesday after three years of grinding war.

In the first high-level US-Ukraine meeting since President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House dressing down, the Americans agreed to restore military aid and they pledged to conclude a deal on Ukrainian minerals “as soon as possible”, a joint statement said.

“Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

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

The joint statement said that “Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties”.

The ceasefire is “subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” it added.

“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said he would now speak to Russia about the proposal, adding it was now a question of “how” not “if” the war would end.

The talks in western Saudi Arabia took place after Ukraine launched its biggest direct attack on Moscow overnight, with hundreds of drones slamming into the capital and other areas, leaving three people dead.

The Ukrainians were hoping to restore the US military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery that was cut off after Zelensky’s public row with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

They entered the meeting with a proposal for a sea and sky ceasefire that had been cautiously welcomed by Rubio.

“We are ready to do everything to achieve peace,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters as he entered Tuesday’s meeting at a luxury hotel.

Kyiv said the “largest drone attack in history” was intended to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to the aerial and naval ceasefire.

“This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a ceasefire in the air,” said Andriy Kovalenko, a national security council official responsible for countering disinformation.

Minerals deal

Zelensky, who met Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in Jeddah on Monday, left the White House late last month without signing an agreement pushed by Trump that would give the US control over Ukrainian mineral resources.

Asked whether the overnight drone attack could derail peace talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said: “There are no (peace) negotiations yet, so there is nothing to disrupt here.”

He also declined earlier to comment on Russia’s stance on the proposed partial ceasefire.

“It is absolutely impossible to talk about positions yet,” he said.

“The Americans will find out only today, as they themselves say, from Ukraine to what extent Ukraine is ready for peace.”

For its part, Russia has escalated strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, and said it had retaken 12 settlements in its Kursk region that Ukraine had captured in a bid for bargaining leverage.

Rubio seeks ‘concessions’

In the infamous White House meeting last month, Zelensky refused to bite his tongue in the face of criticism from Vice President JD Vance, with the Ukrainian leader questioning why his country should trust promises from Russia.

He has since written a repentant letter to Trump.

Rubio had signalled that the Trump administration would likely be pleased by the Ukrainian proposal of a partial ceasefire.

“I’m not saying that alone is enough, but it’s the kind of concession you would need to see in order to end the conflict,” he told reporters.

Rubio said he did not expect to be “drawing lines on a map” towards a final deal in the Jeddah meeting, but that he would bring ideas back to Russia.

Rubio and Waltz met last month with counterparts from Russia, also in Saudi Arabia, ending a freeze in high-level contacts imposed by former president Joe Biden after Russia defied Western warnings and launched its invasion.

Trump last week also threatened further sanctions against Russia to force it to the table as it carried out strikes on Ukraine.

But Trump’s abrupt shift in US policy — including suggesting Ukraine was to blame for the war, and recently siding with Russia at the UN — has stunned many allies.

Rubio said Monday that the United States would also object to “antagonistic” language on Russia from a forthcoming meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers.

AFP

International News

Israel Says It had Struck Two Naval Missile Production Sites In Tehran

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3 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.

“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.

It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.

The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.

Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.

AFP

International News

2025 ‘Deadliest Year’ Yet For Red Sea Migrants, UN Reports 922 Deaths

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3 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.

“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.

The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.

“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.

Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.

Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.

AFP

International News

Denmark Faces Lengthy Negotiations To Form A Government

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4 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /

Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.

Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.

The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.

“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.

But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.

“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.

Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.

“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.

“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.

He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.

“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.

Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.

The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.

‘Too Hard To Say’

Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.

“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.

“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.

With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.

“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.

The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.

The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.

The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.

“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.

“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”

Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.

While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.

AFP