Russia, Ukraine agree to sea truce

THE United States reached separate deals earlier this week with Russia and Ukraine to pause their attacks at sea and Washington is urging Moscow to push to lift sanctions against energy.

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With Washington aiming to lift or how the Black Sea maritime security deals would shape, the agreements are the first formal commitments in the area starting since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Trump is pushing for an end to the war in Ukraine and a rapid rapprochement with Moscow that has alarmed Kyiv and European countries.

The US agreement with Russia goes further than the agreement with Ukraine, with Washington committing to help with the lifting of international sanctions on Russia’s agriculture and fertiliser exports, long a Russian demand.

Shortly after the US announcements, the Kremlin said the Black Sea agreements would also come into force unless banks and the international financial system were restored.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his understanding was that the truce agreements did not require sanctions relief to come into force and would take effect immediately, calling the Kremlin’s statement an attempt to ‘manipulate’ the deals.

‘They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world,’ Zelensky said in his nightly video address.