U.S. says deal reaches a safe sailing in the Black Sea after talks with Russia and Ukraine
The United States said on Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement to stop fighting between Ukraine and Russia and ensure safe navigation in separate talks with both sides. But many details have not been resolved, and the Kremlin agreement has led to the lifting of Western sanctions.
The news comes after three-day talks between the U.S. delegations with Ukraine and Russia in Saudi Arabia to achieve a limited ceasefire step.
While a comprehensive peace agreement still looks far away, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the negotiations as the early “right steps” were heading towards a peaceful settlement of the total war that had recently entered its fourth year.
“This is the first step, not the first step, but the initial step – the presidential administration is committed to a complete end to the war and the possibility of a full ceasefire, and also a step towards a sustainable fair peace agreement,” he said in a press conference.
U.S. experts met with representatives from Ukraine and Russia in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, and in a separate statement after talks with Ukraine and Russia, the White House said in a separate statement that the two sides “agree to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels in the Black Sea for military purposes.”
Details of the expected deal have not been released, but it seems to mark another attempt to ensure secure Black Sea transport following a 2022 agreement established by the United Nations and Turkey but was stopped by Russia the following year.
“We are making a lot of progress,” U.S. President Donald Trump claimed at the White House on Tuesday. “That's what I can report.”
When Moscow exited the freight agreement in 2023, it complained that a parallel agreement promised to remove barriers to Russia's export of food and fertilizers. It said restrictions on transportation and insurance hindered its agricultural trade. Kiev accused Moscow of violating the transaction by delaying inspections of ships.
Russia has frequently attacked Ukraine's southern ports and cereal storage sites after it suspended part of the deal.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a television comment on Tuesday that Moscow has now begun opening up to the revival of the Black Sea shipping agreement, but warned that Russia's interests must be protected.
The White House apparently refers to Moscow’s demands that the United States “will help restore Russia’s access to the world and world markets for fertilizer exports, lower cost of maritime insurance, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev praised the outcome of the negotiations as “a major shift towards peace, strengthening global food security and the supply of grain for more than 100 million people.”
Trump said on X: “Trump “has another global breakthrough through effective dialogue and problem solving. ”
Russia wants to ease sanctions
However, the Kremlin warned in a statement that Black Sea transactions can only be implemented after sanctions against the RBA and other financial organizations involved in the trade in food and fertilizers and ensured their access to the swift international payment system.
The Kremlin said the agreement also aims to lift sanctions on Russian food and fertilizer exporters and lift restrictions on Russian agricultural equipment exports. It also stressed that commercial ships must be inspected to ensure that they are not used for military purposes.
“We think this will weaken our position,” Zelenskyy said of Russia's demand for lifting sanctions.
However, Trump said the U.S. is considering the conditions of the Kremlin: “We are considering all of these conditions now.”
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A senior Ukrainian government official, who was directly familiar with the negotiations and spoke on anonymity because he had no right to comment publicly, said the Kiev delegation did not agree to raise sanctions as a condition for a maritime ceasefire and Russia did nothing to guarantee sanctions.
The official also said that while sanctions involve the responsibility of the EU, European countries have not participated in the sanctions discussion.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov warned that Kiev would see Russian warship deployments in the western Black Sea “violate commitment to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and threaten Ukrainian national security.”
“Ukraine will have full rights to exercise in this case [the] Right to self-defense. ” he said.
Stop energy infrastructure strikes
The White House also said the two sides agreed to formulate measures to implement a deal called by U.S. President Donald Trump with Zelensky and Putin to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine.
The negotiations in Riyadh, which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian ties, were part of an attempt to finalize details of a partial pause in the Ukrainian battle, which began with a full-scale invasion of Moscow in 2022.
Even reaching a limited 30-day ceasefire is a daunting effort, even last week, both sides agreed, even while continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.
Following Trump-Putin's call last week, the White House said a partial ceasefire would include attacks on “energy and infrastructure”, while the Kremlin stressed that the agreement is more narrowly referring to “energy infrastructure.” Tuesday's White House statement restored the wording used by Russia.
The Kremlin accused Ukraine of violating the agreement to prevent strikes on energy infrastructure and released a list of energy facilities on Tuesday that were suspended for 30 days in a strike that began on March 18.
Zelenskyy notes that there is still significant uncertainty.
“I think there will be a million questions and details,” he said, adding that the responsibility for potential violations is also unclear.
He stressed that Ukraine is willing to accept Trump's full 30-day ceasefire and reiterated that Kiev is “ready to move towards an unconditional ceasefire at any time.”
Britain on Tuesday urged Russia to agree to Ukraine’s proposal of “full, direct and unconditional ceasefire.”
The British Foreign Ministry said it had close ties with the United States and Ukraine after the talks in Riyadh. It thanks the United States for its efforts to the ceasefire agreement.
“President Zelenskyy has shown that Ukraine is a peace party and has proposed a comprehensive, unconditional and unconditional ceasefire,” the Foreign Ministry said. “We hope President Putin will agree with this without delay.”
Russia's Putin has a complete ceasefire amid a halt of Kiev's weapons supply and a halt of Ukraine's military mobilization, a request that Ukraine and its Western allies reject.
The United States noted that it is committed to helping to achieve prisoner exchanges, freeing civilian detainees and returning Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred.
Among other developments, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned in a statement that Moscow disagrees with controlling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Europe, and Russia was captured on the opening day of the invasion.
Trump advised Zelenskyy to consider transferring ownership of Ukrainian power plants to the United States for long-term security, while Ukrainian leaders said they specifically talked about the Zaporizhzhia plant on a phone call last week.
