The Trump administration on Tuesday said it has secured separate deals with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in the two countries.
The White House said that under the agreement, Moscow and Kyiv “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
In exchange, the U.S. would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agriculture and fertilizer exports and pledged to help Ukraine secure the release of prisoners of war and civilian detainees held by Moscow.
All sides agreed to continue talks toward achieving a “sustainable peace” and ending the three-year war.
“The United States reiterated President Donald J. Trump’s imperative that the killing on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict must stop as the necessary step toward achieving an enduring peace settlement. To that end, the United States will continue facilitating negotiations between both sides to achieve a peaceful resolution in line with the agreements made in Riyadh,” the White House statement said.
The agreements were made after a series of meetings between U.S. officials and Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
However, Russia rejected a U.S. proposal supported by Ukraine for a broader, 30-day ceasefire.
Banning strikes on ships in the Black Sea will help Ukraine ship grain, one of its most critical exports, across the globe. A previous deal known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in 2022. However, Russia exited that deal in 2023, claiming the U.S. and its allies hadn’t let Moscow export some of its agricultural products in violation of the agreement.
The talks in Saudi Arabia initially focused on a ceasefire in the Black Sea before moving to more complex issues such as ceasefire verification, developing a peacekeeping contingent and the ownership of territories.
Neither side revealed much information about the talks with Russian state news agencies other than saying the meeting lasted more than 12 hours on Monday.
Serhii Leshchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said a delegation from Kyiv would hold additional talks with U.S. officials after the talks with Moscow.
But he cautioned against expecting an agreement out of the meeting, saying “negotiations are usually not concluded in a single day; they sometimes take months.”
While American and Russian negotiators met in Saudi Arabia, a missile strike on Monday on the Ukrainian city of Sumy injured 88 people, including at least 17 children.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would accept a partial 30-day ceasefire covering energy infrastructure, but he included a list of demands that would punish Ukraine so badly, it might be the equivalent of a surrender.
The U.S. delegation that met with the Russians on Monday is led by Andrew Peek, senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff.
The Russians are represented by Grigory Karasin, the leader of the Russian upper house of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service.
