By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-25 14:11:38 | Updated at 2025-03-25 23:11:35
9 hours ago
Russia said on Tuesday it was willing to strike a new agreement on the safety of shipping in the Black Sea – a possible stepping stone towards a ceasefire with Ukraine – but only if the United States ordered President Volodymyr Zelensky to respect it.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said only such an order would provide the assurances that Russia needed.
Each side criticised the other over the collapse in 2023 of an earlier agreement intended to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
“We will need clear guarantees. 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,” 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 in stopping terrorist attacks, stopping shelling of civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure not related to the military-industrial complex.”
Russia frequently accuses Ukraine of “terrorist” actions and Kyiv has often used similar language in response to Russian attacks that have killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine during three years of war.
Lavrov’s comments indicated that Russia will demand a further tightening of US pressure on Zelensky before it will agree to a maritime ceasefire, which Washington says would be an important step towards a more comprehensive truce.
