Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire in war with Russia. After a day of talks in Saudi Arabia, US agrees to resume military aid to Kyiv and intelligence sharing. Secretary of State Rubio says ball is now in Russia's court.
Chapter 1: Why did Ukraine agree to a 30-day ceasefire?
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and this edition is published in the early hours of Wednesday the 12th of March. The US has resumed intelligence sharing and military aid for Ukraine after the Ukrainians agreed to an American proposal for a month-long ceasefire.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would present the plan to Russia and that the ball is in their court. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a positive step.
Also in the podcast... People are talking about trying to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 and experts are saying this could be a real game changer.
An annual injection designed to guard against HIV has completed an important early safety trial. Ukraine has been under huge pressure to sign up to President Trump's vision of a peace deal with Russia. The Americans even halted intelligence sharing and military aid. But after talks in Saudi Arabia, the Ukrainians have agreed to a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire.
Chapter 2: What are the terms of the US-Ukraine ceasefire proposal?
Here's the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that's enduring and sustainable and accounts for their interests, their security, their ability to prosper as a nation. And hopefully we'll take this offer now to the Russians. And we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace.
The ball's now in their court. But again, the president's objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.
Tom Bateman was in Jeddah for the talks and gave us his analysis.
Well, I think there's two very striking points about the joint statement that has been released by the Americans and the Ukrainians. The first is that the U.S. is going to, it says, immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume its security assistance to Ukraine.
and then we have this line about a ceasefire now i need to give you the context first because it's this is why it's so important what we had been led to expect in the run-up to this was that there would be discussions around a ukrainian proposal for a partial early ceasefire which would involve a halt on the firing of long-range missiles onto energy and other critical infrastructure
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Chapter 3: How are experts reacting to the US-Ukraine ceasefire agreement?
and also a ceasefire at sea. But what the statement talks about is something far broader. It talks about basically a complete ceasefire. So it says Ukraine expressed its readiness to accept a U.S. proposal to enact an immediate interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties. So what they're talking about here is a complete stop to the war.
But of course, you've only got one side here. It would have to be agreed by the Russians. So this leads to the next step, which is it's reported Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump's envoy, is going to travel to Moscow this week. They're going to put all of this to the Russians and see if they can get them on board with this process. One other important detail in the statement is about Ukrainian gratitude.
Remember that key moment in the Oval Office statement? where J.D. Vance sat across the room from Vladimir Zelensky and said, you haven't said thank you, say thank you. Now, of course, Mr. Zelensky said thank you dozens of times to the Americans and to the American government and the White House over its support and assistance in Ukraine.
But that became really a symbol of how this relationship had fundamentally fractured, of his dressing down by the Trump administration and the White House. And now we have a line... very clearly stating the Ukrainian delegation reiterated the Ukrainian people's strong gratitude to President Trump, the U.S.
Congress and the people of the United States for making possible meaningful progress towards peace. You know, we've been expecting these talks to wrap up much sooner. There were moments where we thought they might finish and we were expecting the statement that they lasted a lot longer.
I think given the atmosphere that there has been over the last two weeks, that was, you know, seen as a positive sign. And now we do have this very clear joint statement.
Tom Bateman in Saudi Arabia. So how is Ukraine reacting to all this? Yuri Sak is an advisor to Ukraine's Ministry of Strategic Industries.
Of course, we are pleased with the outcome because the pause has ended in terms of providing Ukraine with military support. support as well as intelligence. And this is crucial for our troops. This is crucial for our cities. This is crucial for our capacity to protect ourselves. And, of course, we are quietly optimistic because, you know, after what happened during the last week and a half,
Today is really welcome development. Both sides have worked very hard running up to these negotiations. You know, there's been daily exchanges of views and positions, and now they finalized all of those in Jeddah. And hopefully this will work out. But of course, we are very, you know... How should I put it? We don't trust Russians because we have a very bad history of dealing with them.
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Chapter 4: What is Russia's response to the ceasefire proposal?
Well, President Zelensky has thanked Donald Trump directly in his evening address for enabling these constructive talks. And it seems like Ukraine's leader feels like he has been listened to. He didn't take part in today's discussions. But I think this joint statement after hours of negotiations in Jeddah reflects a restoring of Ukraine and America's relationship.
And I think just hearing the words that the ball is now in Russia's court will be music to Kyiv's ears, because finally we're seeing an America apply some kind of pressure on Russia, and finally it seems to be siding with Ukraine for the first time since Donald Trump took office. But whilst this is a diplomatic breakthrough for Kyiv, there is a huge but. It all hinges on...
on how the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, will view this proposal, or as the delegation put it today, whether he will both accept it and immediately implement this proposed month-long ceasefire along the current front lines.
And how much of a difference will the resumption of intelligence and aid to Ukraine make on the battlefield?
It'll be instantaneous. I mean, the impression we got from officers on the front line, it was that it was like fighting blind. It is shared intelligence by America primarily that enables Ukraine to trace missiles, detect the buildup of Russian troops, to plan assaults, to get a sense of terrain, to use satellite imagery.
That has now been restored and it allows, it sort of creates inertia once more on a creaking front line in some areas. It does not solve Ukraine's problems. You know, the Ukrainian troops are being encircled in some areas of the fighting, but it keeps it in the fight. I think America's withdrawal of support in this way was effectively like fading down Ukraine's life support machine.
It's plugged back in, but Ukraine is still very much fighting for its life.
James Waterhouse in Kiev. And in the past few hours, Ukraine has confirmed that US security assistance and intelligence sharing has resumed. In Washington, President Trump said he would now talk to Vladimir Putin, but it takes two to tango.
Ukraine, ceasefire, just agreed to a little while ago. That's a total ceasefire. Ukraine has agreed to it and hopefully Russia will agree to it. We're going to meet with them later on today and tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to wipe out a deal. But I think the ceasefire is very important. If we can get Russia to do it, that'll be great.
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Chapter 5: How will the resumption of US military aid impact Ukraine?
If we can't, we just keep going on and people are going to get killed, lots of people.
Well, for Reaction from Moscow, I spoke to Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor of BBC Monitoring.
But there are several levels of Russian reaction that we've seen so far. Officially, there's not much. We've only had this statement circulated by Russian official news agencies, quoting the foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zaharova, who said that Russia does not rule out contacts with U.S. representatives in the next few days, whatever that means.
pro-war commentators and war reporters in Russia. They don't really like these moves towards peace. In practical terms, I suppose you can see what's been going on in the skies over Ukraine as a Russian reaction. There have been numerous attacks by Russian drones targeting Ukrainian cities in Dnipropetrovsk. More than 20 drones were have been attacking various places across the city.
There are reports of attacks in Odessa. And as we speak, there's more than a dozen Russian drones roaming the skies above Ukraine. So that's a reaction of sorts, if you like.
But after the warming in relations, particularly with President Trump himself, would Russia risk rejecting the US plan?
Well, there are different scenarios. In a way, Russia earlier rejected similar proposals coming from France and Great Britain. Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, she said that fighting would only resume with renewed force after a ceasefire. Whether it makes a difference that such proposals are now coming from America remains to be seen. But if we were to have a look at history...
Over the course of these 11 years of war, numerous attempts have been made to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. They've all failed.
Vitaly Shevchenko. And still to come on the Global News Podcast... ..how birdsong changes between generations.
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Chapter 6: What is the situation with the train hijacking in Pakistan?
northern province, probably they were taken as hostages by the militants. Now, a group of passengers had been released, according to the rebels, whereas the military said they had been recovered from this in this fighting. About 100 of them have already reached another station. They were asked to walk to the nearest station. And then from there, they were taken by another train.
So this is quite extraordinary. It has come as a big shock to many people in Pakistan. Also, a wake up call for the Pakistani military.
Do we know how they were able to stop the train?
Now, the version according to the militants were that because it was passing through a mountainous area between the tunnels. So it was very difficult for any security force to reach or even to send reinforcements. So they basically attacked the train. Well, it was before it was entering a tunnel. So the train was stopped and the driver was severely injured. Now, who are these rebels?
So basically, they were fighting for the rights of the Baloch people. And they say the federal Pakistani government, they have been taking mineral resources, but not giving anything back to the region, to the people of Balochistan. And that's their grievances. And they have been fighting not only against the Pakistani military, but also against Chinese investment projects.
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And it's just passed an important safety trial, as I heard from our health correspondent Dominic Hughes.
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