Zelensky Says Ukraine Showed ‘We Want a Fast Peace’

Last updated: March 12, 2025 3:05 pm

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While Ukraine said it would agree to a 30-day cease-fire proposal, many in the country were skeptical about whether Russia would do the same.

Pedestrians in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Credit… Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images March 12, 2025

After hours of negotiations that ended with Ukrainian officials acquiescing to a proposed 30-day cease-fire with Russia, it was not until the flight home that they received the news they most wanted to hear: American military assistance was flowing again.

“I will only say that there is no better reward for such a crazy day than to learn, while already sitting on the plane, a short dry confirmation” that military aid had restarted, Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign minister, wrote on social media after talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.

The resumption of U.S. weapons deliveries and intelligence sharing was one outcome of the meeting on Tuesday in the coastal city of Jeddah. Ukraine’s acceptance of the Trump administration’s proposed cease-fire — should Russia do the same — was the other.

While Ukrainians were deeply skeptical that Russia would accept the proposal for a cease-fire, the unfreezing of critical American assistance was widely seen as a positive development that could help mend the ruptured relationship between Kyiv and Washington.

On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine seemingly took care to publicly express gratitude again to President Trump, after he was accused of not being appreciative enough during the disastrous Oval Office meeting last month with the American president that led to the suspension of U.S. assistance.

“The U.S. wanted us to show we want a fast peace, and we showed it,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv, the capital.

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