Russia, Ukraine agree to sea truce

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

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While it was not clear when or how the Black Sea maritime security deals would start, the agreements are the first formal commitments by the two warring sides 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 seek the lifting of international sanctions on Russian agriculture and fertiliser exports, long a Russian demand.

Shortly after the US announcements, the Kremlin said the Black Sea agreements would not come into effect unless links between some Russian banks and the international financial system were restored.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Kyiv and Moscow both said they would rely on Washington to enforce the deals, while expressing scepticism that the other side would abide by them.

“We will need clear guarantees,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelenskiy and his team to do one thing and not the other.”