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The United States said it had concluded agreements with Ukraine and Russia for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, after talks with the two parties in Saudi Arabia.
The White House said on Tuesday that kyiv and Moscow had accepted “to ensure safe navigation, to eliminate the use of force and to prevent the use of commercial ships for military purposes in the Black Sea”.
But questions remain on the moment when the ceasefire comes into force, and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has raised concerns about whether Russia led.
A senior Ukrainian official told Financial Times that kyiv would immediately stop the “deep strikes” on the Russian military targets under the agreement, including the Black Sea and the energy targets.
But the Kremlin said that the agreement would only intervene in force after the sanctions imposed on the Russian banks involved in the production and trade of agricultural products have been lifted.
The White House said that it would increase Russia access to global agriculture and fertilizer markets, including lowering maritime insurance costs and to improve access to ports and payment systems.
Russian demand to raise sanctions against lenders would require EU approval.
Addressing journalists in kyiv, Zelenskyy said that the American team had told its delegation that the ceasements would be in force immediately.
“We first agreed that there could be calm at sea and free navigation,” said Zelenskyy. “The second point is to stop the attacks on the energy system.”
He remained skeptical about Russia who respects this ceasefire, but said that kyiv would hold his end of the agreement.
“I have questions about how it will be implemented.” Of course, I would like more details once our team will come back [to Kyiv]”Said Zelenskyy.
“There is no confidence in the Russians,” he added. “But I believe that we will act constructively and do our part to implement the results of the United States-Ukraine meeting.”
The agreements come after two days of separate discussions with delegations of kyiv and Moscow in Riyadh that the senior Ukrainian official described as “positive … but not a victory”.
