Russia is walking back its agreement to establish a maritime ceasefire on the Black Sea, saying that Western nations must first lift their economic sanctions.
The White House announced Tuesday that it reached an agreement with Ukraine — matching a similar agreement with Russian counterparts — to finally “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
The Kremlin is now disputing that arrangement, stating it will only participate in the cessation of maritime hostilities if Western nations lift a long list of sanctions imposed on Russian industry and banking — demands that the United States is apparently hearing out, but Europe is dismissing out of hand.
A European Union Commission spokesperson announced after the Kremlin’s conditions were made public that an “unconditional withdrawal” of Russian forces from Ukraine is required for any sanctions to be rolled back.
“The end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine would be one of the main preconditions to amend or lift sanctions,” said the spokesperson.
By contrast, President Donald Trump seems more open to Russia’s requests.
“We’re thinking about all of [the proposed conditions] right now. There are about five or six conditions. We’re looking at all of them,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump touched on the negotiations Tuesday night in an interview with Newsmax, during which he did not seem to be particularly concerned about the stalled progress.
“I think that Russia wants to see an end to [the war], but it could be they’re dragging their feet. I’ve done it over the years,” Trump told the outlet. “I think Russia would like to see it end, and I think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky would like to see it end at this point.”
Zelensky does indeed want it to end and is increasingly vocal about his frustration with Russian diplomats, who he believes are giving Trump the run-around.
“We see how the Russians have already started to manipulate,” Zelensky said in a Tuesday evening address. “They are already trying to distort the agreements and actually deceive our mediators and the whole world.”
He continued: “There are absolutely clear statements published by the White House. Everyone can see what they say. And there is something that the Kremlin is lying about again: that allegedly the silence in the Black Sea depends on the issue of sanctions, and that allegedly the start date for the silence in the energy sector is March 18. Moscow always lies.”
The Ukrainian government accuses the Kremlin of intentionally drawing out the peace negotiations and wasting time to give the Russian military ample opportunity to inflict maximum damage.
As negotiations are drawn out, the Ukrainian military faces steady encroachment of Russian forces into the country’s territory and the reclamation of Russian territory previously held by Ukrainian forces.
Kyiv officials are also concerned about clandestine human rights violations taking place in captured Ukrainian regions, particularly regarding the treatment of civilians by Russian soldiers.
The White House acknowledges these concerns and affirmed in its Tuesday afternoon memo that the U.S. “remains committed” to humanitarian concerns on the Ukrainian side, such as “helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously tempered expectations for a swift peace agreement, asserting that conversations between the U.S. and Russia were now in a more “technical” stage regarding details of the proposed ceasefire arrangements.
“It’s now a matter of technical negotiations,” Peskov told the press on Tuesday, according to the Moscow Times. “‘Technical’ means discussions that delve into the details, so, of course, the content of these negotiations will definitely not be made public.”
US RECEDES ON WAR CRIMES TRACKING IN UKRAINE TO END THE WAR
The last round of negotiations was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. held separate talks with Ukraine and Russia before informing each of the other nation’s perspectives.
Future talks were expected to move toward fully trilateral discussions, but such an arrangement may remain untenable due to conflicting visions between Ukraine and Russia.
