Ukraine and Russia have agreed to stop military strikes in the Black Sea, with Moscow demanding the US give direct orders to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to respect the move.
Ukraine and Russia have agreed to stop military strikes in the Black Sea, with Moscow demanding the US give direct orders to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to respect the move.
After both sides failed to reach a consensus on a wider cease-fire deal with US mediators Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin will agree to at least a pause in the busy trade route as long as it gets guarantees from the Trump administration.
“We will need clear guarantees,” Lavrov said in televised comments. “And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelensky and his team to do one thing and not the other.
“And it seems to me that our American partners have received this signal,” he said. “They understand that only Washington can achieve positive results in stopping terrorist attacks, stopping shelling of civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure not related to the military-industrial complex.
