WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV
The United States reached separate agreements on Tuesday 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 as a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine. Both countries said they would rely on Washington to enforce 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.," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "We will need clear guarantees. And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelenskiy and his team to do one thing and not the other."
The agreements, reached in Saudi Arabia, follow talks initiated by US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to swiftly end the war and has shifted Washington's position from firmly backing Kyiv to a stance more sympathetic with Moscow.
Under the agreement with Moscow, Washington promised to help restore Russian access to markets for its agricultural and fertiliser exports. The Kremlin said this would require lifting some sanctions. The talks followed separate phone calls last week between Trump and the two presidents, Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin.
What Does Russia Get?
The United States said it "will help restore Russia's access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions".
Russia said it had agreed with Washington "to ensure the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative, which includes ensuring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, the non-use of force and the prevention of the use of commercial vessels for military purposes while organizing appropriate control measures through the inspection of such vessels".
The Kremlin said the deal on maritime safety would come into force after a series of conditions were met -- including the lifting of restrictions and sanctions on a major agricultural bank, exporters of food and fertilizer and on Russian vessels. Those include the lifting of restrictions on state agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank "and other financial organizations involved in ensuring international trade in food (including fish products) and fertilizers, their connection to SWIFT, and the opening of necessary correspondent accounts".
The conditions include the removal of curbs on trade finance operations and of sanctions on companies producing and exporting food (including fish products) and fertilizers, as well as lifting on the work of insurance companies with shipments of food (including fish products) and fertilizers.
Other conditions include the lifting of restrictions on the maintenance of ships in ports and sanctions against Russian-flagged vessels involved in food and fertilizer trade. Restrictions would also be removed on the supply of agricultural machinery to Russia, as well as on other goods involved in the production of food (including fish products) and fertilizers.
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