Russia said Tuesday that he is willing to reach a new agreement on the safety of navigation in the Black Sea “a possible step towards a high fire with Ukraine”, but only if the United States orders President Volodimir Zelenski to respect him.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that only such an order would provide the guarantees that Russia needed.
Each part criticized the other for the collapse in 2023 of an previous agreement aimed at guaranteeing the security of merchant navigation in the Black Sea after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
“We will need clear guarantees. And given the sad experience of agreements only with kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of a Washington order to Zelenski and his team to do one thing and not another,” Lavrov said in televised comments.
“And it seems to me that our American partners have received this signal. They understand that only Washington can achieve positive results to stop terrorist attacks, stop the bombardment of civil infrastructure, energy infrastructure not related to the military-industrial complex.”
Russia often accuses Ukraine of “terrorist” actions and kyiv has often used a similar language in response to Russian attacks that have killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine for three years of war.
Lavrov’s comments indicated that Russia will demand a greater hardening of the United States pressure on Zelenski before accepting a high sea fire, which Washington says it would be an important step towards a broader truce.
Zelenski and Trump had a disastrous meeting at the White House last month, to which kyiv and his European allies fear that Trump can seal an agreement with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who gives in the Russian and Socave demands.
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Successor of the Black Sea Agreement
The high maritime fire in discussion would be a successor to the previous agreement of the Black Sea that had allowed Ukraine to export almost 33 million metric tons of grain despite the war.
Moscow retired in 2023, claiming that their own exports of food and fertilizers faced serious problems due to western sanctions that affected payments, logistics and insurance. kyiv had previously accused Russia of obstructing the initiative.
Lavrov said that the cereal and fertilizer market should be “predictable.” He added that Russia could not trust Zelenski’s word, an accusation that he usually directs to Putin.
Lavrov added that the Black Sea initiative was the priority of the conversations held at a meeting between US and Russian officials held Monday in Saudi Arabia.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that both Russia and the United States were analyzing the result of the conversations, but that the details would not be made public.
The Ukrainian national station Suspilne cited a source that said that Ukrainian and American officials would meet in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Tuesday.
When Trump and Putin spoke last week, the Russian leader rejected a proposal of the US president for a high fire of 30 days in Ukraine, but agreed a moratorium in the attack on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Ukraine says it is willing to join a limited energy fire if it is properly documented.
With Reuters information.
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