FLASH
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Russia and Ukraine confirmed the ceasefire agreement in the Black Sea, which the White House announced a short while ago.
The White House reported earlier that Russia and Ukraine agreed to ensure the safe passage of commercial ships and stop military attacks in the Black Sea.
In separate announcements, the two warring parties, the Kremlin on one side and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the other, confirmed the agreement which, if respected, could potentially be the first step towards a broader ceasefire agreement in Ukraine.
Moscow and Washington have reached an agreement on the Black Sea, the Kremlin announced, confirming the White House's previous announcement.
As emphasized in the Kremlin statement, the agreement focuses on ensuring safe navigation and prohibiting the use of merchant ships for military purposes.
"In accordance with the agreement between the presidents of Russia and the United States, both sides are committed to implementing the Black Sea Initiative. This initiative includes ensuring safe navigation in the Black Sea, refraining from the use of force, and prohibiting the use of merchant ships for military purposes, by establishing appropriate control measures through inspections of these ships," the statement said.
The Russian-American consultations were held in Riyadh on March 24 and lasted more than 12 hours. According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the negotiators focused on reviving the Black Sea grain initiative.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that his country intends to "implement" the agreements announced by the White House, mainly regarding the ceasefire in the Black Sea between Kiev and Moscow, describing them as "good measures."
"We will work on implementing the agreements of the Ukraine-US summit," Zelensky said during a press conference. "We will be constructive," he added.
Zelensky opposed any "weakening" of international sanctions against Russia, with Washington declaring its readiness to help Moscow facilitate access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to world markets.
"We consider this as a weakening of the position and a weakening of sanctions," Zelensky said, commenting on the US proposal. This option "was not on our agenda, the American side raised it" during the negotiations in Riyadh, he added.
Zelensky also said that recent statements by US envoy Steve Witkoff regarding territories claimed by Russia follow the Kremlin's line.
Steve Witkoff's statements "largely coincide with the Kremlin's messages," Zelensky said during the press conference.
Referring to the summit on Ukraine to be held in Paris on Thursday, President Zelensky said he would aim to determine which countries would be willing to send military force to Ukrainian territory in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.
"Our task is to understand who is willing to implement security guarantees" regarding the deployment of military force, he stressed.
The Ukrainian Defense Minister also called for "further technical consultations" to be organized to resolve the "details" of the agreements announced by the White House, under which Kiev and Moscow accepted the principle of a ceasefire in the Black Sea.
Earlier, Russia sought guarantees from the US to sign an agreement on the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready to sign if the United States gave President Volodymyr Zelensky an order to comply with it, saying only such an order would provide the necessary guarantees for Russia.
Lavrov also said that his country also demanded the lifting of restrictions on Russian exports during negotiations, which lasted about 12 hours, yesterday in Saudi Arabia between the Russians and the Americans.
"Now we need to create guarantees and mechanisms that are as clear, tangible, reliable and real as possible," he stressed.
"We want the grain market, we want the fertilizer market to be predictable, we want no one to try to exclude us from this market."
"We will need clear guarantees. And given the sad experience of agreements concluded only with Kiev, guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelensky and his team to do one thing and not the other," Lavrov noted.
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