US says Russia and Ukraine agree to ceasefire in the Black Sea

The US said Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a truce in the Black Sea and to work out mechanisms for implementing the ban on strikes against energy infrastructure.

In separate statements, the White House said on March 25 that three days of technical-level talks in Saudi Arabia with teams from Russia and Ukraine had yielded agreements “to ensure safe navigation” in the Black Sea. The sides had also agreed to prevent the use of commercial shipping for military purposes, it said.

The US “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions”, according to the statement.

Both Ukraine and Russia agreed to work with the US on measures to put the truce on attacks against energy infrastructure into effect, the White House said.

The statements came after the Kremlin earlier March 25 said that it would not disclose details of

the 12 hours of negotiations

between Russian and US officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh. US and Ukrainian officials also held a second round of talks on March 25, following discussions on March 23 that Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had called “productive and focused”. 

The US had billed the separate meetings as the next stage in President Donald Trump’s campaign to bring an end to Russia’s more than three-year-long invasion of Ukraine. 

The Saudi meetings followed Mr Trump’s separate phone calls last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. He secured agreement from the two leaders for the 30-day truce covering energy infrastructure, though details of how it would be enforced and monitored were unclear.

The White House statement said the US “remains committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children”.

The Russia-US dialogue was difficult but constructive and covered many issues, Mr Grigory Karasin, a former deputy foreign minister who jointly led the Kremlin’s negotiating team, said on March 25, according to Russian news agency Tass. Talks will continue and involve the United Nations as well as other countries, he said.

Turkey and the UN mediated talks on a grain export deal from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in 2022-2023 that collapsed when Russia withdrew.

Ukraine unconditionally supports the idea of a full ceasefire with Russia that goes beyond the energy truce, the nation’s envoy to the US said. 

“We embrace it wholeheartedly,” ambassador Oksana Markarova said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on March 24. “We need Russia to agree to that,” she said, adding that “it takes two to dance”. BLOOMBERG