ISLAMABAD : Monitoring Desk – After weeks of high-level talks punctuated by frequent stops and starts, Russia and Ukraine have given the strongest signal yet they are willing to lay down arms – even if only in part, BBC and other international news outlets reported on 25 March 2025 afternoon.
The White House says it has brokered an agreement between the two countries to halt military activity over the Black Sea after its officials met separately with counterparts from Moscow and Kyiv in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
It’s a different deal to the more ambitious one touted only weeks earlier, as BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale points out, when the US and Ukraine held talks in Jeddah.
The new agreement is fraught with complications, including Russia’s list of conditions. The Kremlin said it won’t commit until sanctions are lifted and membership to the Swift payment network is reinstated, demands Trump says he is considering.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of lying about the terms of the agreement.
There are other worries about how durable the deal could be. Russia has broken agreements in the past, and the White House has given little indication it’s negotiating in Ukraine’s interest alone. Ukraine says the movement of Russian warships westward will be treated as a violation of terms.
Even so, Zelensky is showing cautious optimism, telling reporters the deal represents “the right steps” towards peace.
US looking at Russia’s conditions, Trump says
We’ve just been hearing from US President Donald Trump who has been meeting US ambassadors at the White House.
He’s asked by a reporter about the sanctions Russia says need to be lifted by the US before it implements the Black Sea deal.
“We’re thinking about all of them right now,” Trump tells reporters. “We’re looking at all of them.”
Russia says sanctions need to be lifted on banks involved in international trade in food and fertilisers, as well as being fully reconnected to Swift – a network that facilitates secure financial messaging.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of lying about the terms agreed with American negotiators.
In the UK, Downing Street has struck a cautiously optimistic note.“Our position at the moment is that we are obviously hopeful of the progress,” a spokeswoman for No 10 says, adding they were closely following developments.
The spokeswoman declines to say whether the UK is planning to ease any sanctions on Russia – as a reminder, Russia says certain sanctions must be eased before the ceasefire begins.
Since news of the Black Sea ceasefire broke this afternoon, we’ve had a flurry of statements from the US, Ukraine and Russia:
- It began when the White House announced Russia and Ukraine had agreed to ensure safe passage for commercial shipping in the Black Sea – and to stop military strikes
- The statements were released after US talks in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian and Russian teams
- The Ukrainian defence ministry then said the movement of Russian warships outside the “eastern part of the Black Sea” would be treated as a violation of the agreement
- President Zelensky called the deal a “step in the right direction” but that it was “too early” to say whether it would work
- Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov – who took part in the Riyadh talks with the US – said “technical consultations” were needed “as soon as possible to agree on all the details and technical aspects of the implementation, monitoring and control of the arrangements”
- And Russia said certain sanctions must be lifted from banks, food producers and exporters before the ceasefire could come into effect
