Russia and Ukraine agree maritime ceasefire – then Russia attaches strings
Safe navigation in the Black Sea? A Ukrainian naval vessel in the Black Sea in 2015. (Photo: US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robert S. Price).
Tentative peace in the Black Sea broke down almost immediately amid Russian demands for a financial climb-down from the EU.
Russia and Ukraine agreed a maritime ceasefire following talks between Ukrainian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday 25 March.
The so-called “Black Sea Deal” was set out by the US, and included provisos for safe navigation in the Black Sea and an agreement to work together on measures banning strikes on energy infrastructure in both Russia and Ukraine.
The energy plant proviso echoed President Trump’s idea, expressed less than a week earlier, that the US could “run Ukraine’s energy plants” – although that plan has since been widely dismissed as “not credible”, not least by Moscow
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