Kyiv, Moscow agree sea, energy truce; Washington to seek easing Russia sanctions
According to REUTERS, The United States reached deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia on a truce in the Black Sea and a pause in attacks on energy facilities, with Washington also pledging to push for the lifting of some financial sanctions against Moscow.
The separate agreements are the first formal commitments by the warring sides since the inauguration of Donald Trump, who is pushing for an end to the war and a rapid rapprochement with Moscow that has alarmed Kyiv and European countries.
The U.S. 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 persistent Russian demand.
The Kremlin said this would mean restoring links between some Russian banks to the international financial system.
Kyiv and Moscow both said they would rely on Washington to enforce the deals.
Ukrainian president VolodymyrZelenskiy said the truce agreements would take effect immediately, and that if Russia violated them he would ask Trump to impose additional sanctions on Moscow and provide more weapons for Ukraine.
"We have no faith in the Russians, but we will be constructive," he said.
He also said Ukraine had not signed on to the U.S. offer to help relieve sanctions on Russia, which was in the U.S.-Russia statement but not in the separate statement agreed with Ukraine.
"We believe that this is a weakening of position and sanctions," he said.
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 talks in Saudi Arabia followed separate phone calls last week between Trump and the two presidents, Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin.
Putin rejected Trump's proposal for a full ceasefire lasting 30 days, which Ukraine had previously endorsed.
But Washington has nevertheless softened its rhetoric towards Russia, with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff saying he did not "regard Putin as a bad guy", alarming European officials who consider the Russian leader a dangerous enemy.
