Russia and Ukraine agree to halt Black Sea strikes, US says

Following discussions in Saudi Arabia, the United States announced that Russia and Ukraine have come to an agreement to prevent military action on ships in the Black Sea.

In addition, the White House stated on Tuesday that each nation “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

Rustem Umerov, a member of the country’s delegation in Riyadh, confirmed that Kyiv had consented to the partial ceasefire, stating that it included attacks on Black Sea shipping and infrastructure.

He warned in a Facebook post that Kyiv would view any Russian warship movements “outside the eastern part” of the Black Sea as a violation of the agreement to stop the “use of force.”

In such a situation, he said, Ukraine would have “full right to exercise right to self-defence.”

Umerov also advocated for “additional technical consultations” as soon as possible to “come to agreement on all the specifics and technical details of the implementation, monitoring, and control of the arrangements.”

Russia did not respond right away.

Following US negotiators’ separate discussions with Russian and Ukrainian teams that primarily focused on putting an end to Russian and Ukrainian attacks in order to elicit a more extensive ceasefire in the more than three-year Russia-Ukraine conflict.

US and Russian officials discussed the possibility of the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal that was supposed to permit Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of grain and other food from its ports, during a 12-hour meeting on Monday.

In 2023, Moscow objected to the West’s failure to honor its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of farm products and fertilizers and pulled out of the initiative, which Turkiye and the UN had co-sponsored.

The US announced on Tuesday that it would support the resume of Russian exports of fertiliser.