SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series — Russia, Ukraine agree to ensure safe navigation in Black Sea, US says

The United States said on Tuesday it had secured separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to ban strikes against their respective energy facilities. Ukraine has called for more talks to settle the “details” and warned that the movement of Russian warships would violate the deal.

A Ukrainian serviceman holds a “Stinger” anti-aircraft weapon while scanning for possible air targets, in the northwestern part of the Black Sea on December 18, 2023. © Anatolii Stepanov, AFP file photo

The United States said on Tuesday it has reached separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other’s energy facilities.

The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that Washington sees a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday that Moscow had agreed to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea.

Russia and the United States have also agreed to develop measures to halt strikes on Russian and Ukrainian energy facilities for a period of 30 days that began on March 18, it added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the truce was effective immediately on Tuesday and that he would seek more weapons and sanctions on Russia from US President Donald Trump if Moscow broke the deals.

“If the Russians violate this, then I have a direct question for President Trump. If they violate, here is the evidence – we ask for sanctions, we ask for weapons, etc,” Zelensky told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv.

The US agreement with Russia goes further than the agreement with Ukraine, with Washington committing to help seek the lifting of international sanctions on Russian agriculture and fertiliser exports, long a Russian demand.

The Kremlin said the Black Sea agreements would not come into effect unless links between some Russian banks and the international financial system were restored.

Zelensky said this was untrue, and that the deals did not require sanctions relief to come into force. Speaking in his nightly address to Ukrainians, he accused Moscow of trying to “distort” the agreements and “deceive” the world.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said Kyiv had agreed to both a maritime ceasefire and a pause by Russia and Ukraine in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure.

But he said Kyiv would regard any movement of Russian military vessels outside the eastern part of the Black Sea as a violation and a threat.

‘The agreement comes with conditions on Kyiv’s side’

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In this case Ukraine would have the full right to exercise self-defence, he said.

Seeking to fulfil a pledge by Trump to end the war quickly, the US originally proposed a full 30-day ceasefire – to which Ukraine agreed in principle on March 11 – as a step towards peace talks.

But the Americans held separate talks in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine this week to discuss more limited ceasefires on energy and at sea, after Putin responded to the wider truce plan with a long list of conditions and questions.

Trump is pressing both sides to bring a swift end to the war, something he promised to achieve when he ran for president last year.

At the same time he is pursuing a rapid rapprochement with Moscow that both sides say could lead to lucrative business opportunities and cooperation across a wide range of areas, from minerals to sport and space exploration.

Ukraine and its European allies fear Trump could strike a hasty deal with Putin that undermines their security and caves in to Russian demands, including for Kyiv to abandon its NATO ambitions and give up the entirety of four regions claimed by Russia as its own. Ukraine has rejected that as tantamount to surrender.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

Sources from: FRANCE24.COM