The United States said on Tuesday that it has made separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and also to ban strikes against the energy facilities in the two countries, reports news agency Reuters.
In a statement, the White House said that Washington would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports. It also assured to continue to facilitate talks on both sides in a bid towards achieving a sustainable peace.
Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said Tuesday that the talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.
According to PTI, the three days of meetings which did not include the direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations are part of an attempt to hammer out the details on a partial pause in the three-year-old war in Ukraine. It has also been a tough struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week, with both sides continuing the attack on each other with drones and missiles.
Russia and Ukraine have also taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like and disagreed over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause – even after US President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of both countries to advance a deal.
