The United States reached separate agreements on Tuesday to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea with Ukraine and Russia and implement the ban on attacks on each other’s energy facilities by the two countries.
If applied, the agreement will represent the most obvious progress towards a broad ceasefire, which the Washington looks as a step towards peace talks to end Russia’s three -year -old war in Ukraine.
The two countries said that they would rely on Washington to implement deals.
“If the Russians have violated this, I have a direct question for President Trump. If they violate, there are evidence here – we ask for sanctions, we ask for arms, etc., etc.,” Ukrainian President Volodimier Zelansky asked reporters at a news conference in Kiv.
Russian External Affairs Minister Sergei Lavarov said: “We will need a clear guarantee. And just given the tragic experience of compromises with Kiev, guarantee only the guarantee from Washington and his team may be the result of an order to do one thing and not to the other.”
The agreement reached in Saudi Arabia, follows the conversation launched by US President Donald Trump, who vowed to end the war rapidly and has shifted the position of Washington with a stance with Kiev and more sympathetic with Moscow.
Under the agreement with Moscow, Washington promised to help restore Russian access to markets for its agriculture and fertilizer exports. Kremlin said that this would require some restrictions to be lifted.
The talks followed different phone calls between Trump and two Presidents, Zelanceki and Vladimir Putin last week. Putin dismissed Trump’s proposal for a 30 -day full ceasefire, which Ukraine had earlier supported.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustom Umerov said that Kiev considers any movement of Russian military ships as a violation and danger outside the eastern part of the Black Sea, in which case Ukraine will have the right to self -defense.
Stop on attack on energy facilities
Russia has attacked Ukraine’s power grid with missiles and drones throughout the war, arguing that the citizen energy infrastructure is a valid goal as it helps Ukraine’s war capacity.
Recently, Ukraine has been starting a long distance strike on Russian oil and gas goals, which states that it provides fuel for Russian soldiers and income to fund its war efforts.
At the beginning of the war, Russia blocked a real naval blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, which threatened to spoil the global food crisis.
But the maritime battle has been only a small part of the war since 2023, when Russia withdrew its naval forces from the eastern Black Sea after several successful Ukrainian attacks. Kiev was able to reopen its ports and resume exports at the level of pre-war, despite the collapse of the previous un–brokened Black Sea Shipping Agreement.
Trump is pressurizing both sides to bring a faster end to the war, a goal he promised to achieve for the President running last year.
At the same time, he is rapidly keeping pace with Russia that Washington and Moscow say it can give rise to attractive business opportunities.
Ukraine and his European colleagues are afraid that Trump may deal with Putin in a hurry that reduces their safety and caves in Russian demands, leaving their NATO ambitions for Kiev and abandoning the entirety of the four regions claimed by Russia. Ukraine has dismissed that as a tentmount to surrender.
