The White House said Tuesday that both Ukraine and Russia have agreed to stop using force in the Black Sea – a deal in principle that the Kremlin says comes with several conditions before it can be implemented.
US officials held a series of separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia in recent days. The White House outlined the agreements it said the US struck with Russia and Ukraine in two separate, but very similar statements on Tuesday.
Both said that the US and each of the respective countries “have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a news conference in Kyiv that Ukraine has agreed to stop using military force in the Black Sea. However, the Kremlin’s statement added that it would only implement the deal when restrictions on its banks and food and fertilizer exports are lifted.
The sanctions were imposed after Moscow launched its unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The US appeared to have offered different rewards to Kyiv and Moscow for sticking to their side of the bargain, including a promise that it would “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” – a possible indication of willingness by the US to lift some of its strict economic sanctions. The details and timeline of relaxing restrictions remain unclear, as does the future of European sanctions.
Kyiv and its European allies have previously warned against lifting sanctions before a ceasefire is in place.
The two statements from the White House also said that the US and the two countries – separately – agreed to “develop measures for implementing” an agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities of Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky seemed more optimistic about this part of the agreement, telling reporters in Kyiv that Ukraine and Russia have also agreed to pause strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. He said that Ukraine has provided the US with a list of energy facilities it would like to be protected.
However, he also confirmed that “civilian infrastructure will not be included in the agreement.” Russia has been regularly attacking Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, killing dozens of Ukrainian civilians this month.
In the statement outlining the results of the talks with Ukraine, the White House 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.”
As the Trump administration pushes for peace in Ukraine, Russian officials have previously indicated interest in US-led proposals, accompanied by strenuous conditions. Earlier this month, after Kyiv accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire covering the entire front line, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he “agreed with the proposal” in spirit but requested a number of concessions before signing up to it.
An agreement that Ukraine and Russia stop targeting energy infrastructure has also been marred by allegations that both sides have continued to attack energy sites.
No joint statement from US and Russia
The White House statements came after lengthy talks between the two sides on a potential ceasefire in Ukraine ended without a joint statement, despite expectations that there would be one.
The Russian state news agency Interfax quoted the first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Defence and Security Committee, Vladimir Chizhov, as telling state TV channel Rossiya-24 that the statement was “not adopted because of Ukraine’s position.”
“The fact that they sat for 12 hours and seemed to agree on a joint statement, which however was not adopted due to Ukraine’s position, is also very characteristic and symptomatic,” Chizhov told Russia-24, according to Interfax.
Kyiv was not represented in the talks and Chizhov did not give any details on “Ukraine’s position.”
Russian and US officials had met at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh on Monday, the same location where the US delegation met with Ukrainian officials a day earlier. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov described his meeting with President Donald Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg on Sunday as “productive and focused.”
Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of his priorities. He went as far as promising during his election campaign that he would achieve peace within 24 hours of being in office.
Instead of a full truce, the White House statements on Tuesday outline an agreement to stop using force in the sea, similar to the Black Sea grain initiative that was in place earlier in the war.
Brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, the deal allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea, with ships bypassing a Russian blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports and navigating safe passage through the waterway to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait in order to reach global markets. Ukraine was one of the world’s leading grain exporters before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The initiative was signed in July 2022 and renewed three times before Russia allowed it to lapse in July 2023, saying that its demands had not been met. Moscow had for some time complained that it had been prevented from adequately exporting its own foodstuffs under the deal.
However, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow was in favor of resuming the Black Sea Grain Initiative, “with certain conditions.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow was “analyzing” the results of the second round of talks between Russian and US officials.
He also said there were currently no plans for Trump and Putin to speak, although he added that a conversation between the two leaders could be arranged “quite quickly.”
Meanwhile, Lavrov told Russia’s Channel One that the US must “order” Zelensky to respect a new Black Sea grain deal, hinting at the belief by Moscow that the US is prepared to strong-arm Kyiv into an agreement.
Indeed, the White House has made it clear to Zelensky and his nation that US military, economic and intelligence support rests on his willingness to participate in Trump’s peace process.