U.S. gets Russian and Ukrainian commitment to Black Sea ceasefire
The statements — which came after this week’s technical talks in Riyadh — differed in two key ways.
KYIV — Russia and Ukraine agreed Tuesday to expand their initial limited ceasefire on energy infrastructure to include the Black Sea after U.S.-sponsored indirect talks in Saudi Arabia.
In separate joint statements from the White House — one between the United States and Russia, another between the U.S. and Ukraine — the two countries agreed to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes” in the Black Sea. It did not specify when the limited ceasefire would go into effect.
The statements — which came after this week’s technical talks in Riyadh — differed in two key ways. The U.S. also separately agreed to help Russia gain access to the world markets to export fertilizer and other agricultural products and reiterated its commitment to Ukraine to help facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war, civilian detainees and kidnapped children.
“This meeting is a logical extension of the successful consultations with the United States in Jeddah,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who helped guide the technical conversations in Saudi Arabia, in a Facebook post. “No one wants a just peace more than Ukrainians, and our position remains honest, transparent and consistent.”
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he remained unsure how the agreement would be implemented. Not included in the joint statement from the United States was a ban on attacks against civilian infrastructure, which Zelensky said would still apply: “The American side believes that calm skies, as related to the energy sector, also applies to other civilian infrastructure.”
The partial ceasefire would prevent Ukraine from striking Russian oil production and exports, which Kyiv had found to be effective at bringing the war home to the Kremlin.
Most Ukrainians — or as many as 85 percent — view a partial ceasefire positively, according to a poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, conducted from March 12 to 22, or before the ban was updated to include the Black Sea.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that the resumption of the Black Sea initiative was “agreeable” but “we cannot take this man’s word for it,” referring to Zelensky.
He said Russia wants “the grain market, the fertilizer market to be predictable,” so that no one tries to remove Russia from these markets.
The Black Sea Initiative, also known as the “grain deal,” envisaged the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports and the normalization of Russian exports, such as agricultural products and fertilizers, to world markets. The obligations to Russia were not fulfilled, so in July 2023, Moscow withdrew from the deal.