Russia and Ukraine 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,” the Trump administration said Tuesday, claiming a limited advance in efforts to broker a peace deal between the two countries.
The agreements were announced in separate statements by the White House after U.S. officials held separate bilateral talks with Ukrainian and Russian delegations this week in Riyadh.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was his country’s understanding that the Black Sea agreement was in effect immediately, and Russia’s government also released a statement confirming that it had agreed to the terms.
Zelenskyy noted that the White House statement did not specify any actions to be taken if Russia violates the terms of the agreement, and he said Ukraine would appeal directly to the Trump administration for more weapons and more sanctions against Russia in such a case.
“In accordance with the agreement between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, the Russian and American sides agreed to ensure the implementation of the ‘Black Sea Initiative,’ which includes ensuring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, the non-use of force and the prevention of the use of commercial vessels for military purposes while organizing appropriate control measures through the inspection of such vessels,” the Kremlin said in a statement published by the Russian state-run news agency TASS.Ā
It said that in return for the Black Sea deal, the U.S. would “help restore access for Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports to the world market, reduce the cost of shipping insurance, and expand access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”
The terms of the deal, as described by the Kremlin, appeared to be based largely on the previous Black Sea Grain Initiative, a limited ceasefire brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that Russia walked away from in 2023. Moscow claimed the U.S. and other Ukrainian partners weren’t keeping up their end of the agreement in 2023, by blocking the export of some Russian agricultural products.
