KYIV, Ukraine — 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 war against Russia, and Ukrainian officials signalled 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.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine have already resumed through a Polish logistics centre, 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 neighbouring Ukraine about 70 kilometres (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.
Meanwhile, an intensifying Russian effort to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk region has yielded breakthroughs in recent days, Ukrainian soldiers told The Associated Press. The fighting has escalated as ceasefire talks come to a head, with Moscow intent on taking back its territory and Kyiv determined to hold onto it as a bargaining chip in any negotiations.
Ukrainian forces made a daring raid into the Russian region last August in the first foreign occupation of Russian territory since the Second World War. They have held on despite intense pressure from tens of thousands of Russian and North Korean troops.
Recent fighting reportedly has focused on the Kursk town of Sudzha, which is a key Ukrainian supply hub and operational base. Ukrainian soldiers said that the situation is dynamic and fighting continues in and around the town, but three of them conceded Russian forces were making headway.
Russian state news agencies RIA Novosti and Tass reported Wednesday that the Russian military have entered Sudzha. It wasn’t possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
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U.S. President Donald Trump wants to end the three-year war and pressured Zelenskyy to enter talks. The suspension of U.S. assistance came days after Zelenskyy and Trump argued about the conflict in a tense White House meeting.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the American delegation to Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia, said that Washington would present the ceasefire offer to the Kremlin, which has so far opposed anything short of a permanent end to the conflict and hasn’t accepted any concessions.
“We’re going to tell (the Russians) this is what’s on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking. And now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no,” Rubio told reporters after the talks. “If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.”
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel this week to Moscow, where he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly. The person cautioned that scheduling could change.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcome the U.S.-Ukraine agreement and said on X that “the ball is now clearly in Russia’s court.”
Russian officials are wary about the U.S.-Ukraine talks
Russian lawmakers signaled wariness about the prospect of a ceasefire.
“Russia is advancing (on the battlefield), so it will be different with Russia,” senior Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev noted in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
“Any agreements (with the understanding of the need for compromise) should be on our terms, not American,” Kosachev wrote.
Lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet told the state news agency Tass that “Russia is not interested in continuing” the war but at the same time Moscow “will not tolerate being strung along.”
The outcome of the Saudi Arabia talks “puts the ball back in Russia’s court and places the onus on Washington to persuade Moscow to accept and implement the ceasefire,” John Hardie, a defense analyst and deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute.
“Moscow will present itself as cooperative, but may push for agreement on basic principles for a final peace deal before agreeing to a ceasefire,” he said.
“Russia may also insist on barring Western military aid to Ukraine during the ceasefire and on Ukraine holding elections ahead of a long-term peace agreement.”
Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, reported Wednesday morning that the service’s chief, Sergei Naryshkin, spoke on the phone with CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Tuesday.
The two discussed cooperation “in areas of common interest and the resolution of crisis situations,” according to a statement by the SVR.