Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Moscow and Kyiv comply with Black Sea ceasefire, Trump’s White House says

World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire over the Black Sea and in attacks between Russia and Ukraine on energy resources.

This is a concession by Kyiv. Ukraine has been winning the war against Russia’s energy infrastructure supplying its forces in Ukraine. And Ukraine rules the Black Sea.

The Kyiv ministry of defence has warned Russia that its ships should not stray out of the “eastern Black Sea” or risk attack, because it knows that Russian ships have been stuck in ports hiding from Ukrainian missiles and drones for months.

This ceasefire is an effort to keep in favour with Donald Trump long enough to continue to get intelligence feeds from the US, until Europe and other allies can step in. Similarly European efforts to replace unreliable military supplies from the US to Ukraine will take some time.

So Kyiv is gambling with its naval dominance in the hope that eventually it won’t have to rely on an administration that so publicly and materially is rooting for a Putin victory.

Putin, however, is presiding over a collapsing economy, a land war that has left untold numbers of bodies abandoned in the Donbas “meat grinder” and has flattened the Ukrainian provinces he claimed to be saving.

If Ukraine can last another year and get the support it once got from Washington from elsewhere… it could win this war.

Further contacts between US and Russian officials on achieving a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine are likely to follow a round of talks Monday, a Kremlin official said Tuesday, but no concrete plans have yet been made.

The American and Russian negotiators held talks throughout the day on Monday in the capital of Saudi Arabia to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine, a day after US officials held separate talks in Riyadh with a team from Kyiv.

It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week — with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles and disagreement over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes.

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Following three days of intense negotiations in Saudi Arabia, the White House has confirmed that both sides have agreed to halt strikes in the Black Sea.

A number of other measures have been agreed, including measures towards implementing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

Notably, the deals are agreed between the US and the respective countries, rather than directly between Moscow and Kyiv.

Here is a look at what has been agreed, according to the White House:

Both sides agree to:

• Eliminate force and ensure safe navigation of ships in the Black Sea (*Ukraine specifies that Russian vessels moving beyond the eastern area of the Black Sea will constitute a violation of the deal in its view).
• Develop measures for implementing the agreement to ban strikes on energy facilities.
• Work with third party countries to implement the energy and sea agreements.
• Work towards achieving a durable and lasting peace.

Russia only:

• US will help “restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports”.
• US will help Russia to lower maritime insurance costs and enhance access to ports and payment systems.

Ukraine only:

• The US remains committed in “helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children”.

Any movement of Russian military vessels outside of the eastern part of the Black Sea will be regarded as a violation of the Black Sea agreement, Ukraine’s defence ministry has said.

“The Ukrainian side emphasizes that all movement by Russia of its military vessels outside of Eastern part of the Black Sea will constitute violation of the spirit of this agreement, will be regarded as violation of the commitment to ensure safe navigation of the Black Sea and threat to the national security of Ukraine,” the ministry wrote on X.

“In this case Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defense,” the statement added.

Kyiv confirmed it had agreed to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes”.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to ensure the safety of commercial shipping in the Black Sea, the White House has said.

A White House statement said US, Russian and Ukrainian officials had “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea”.

Russia has learnt a “wealth of lessons” about Western military capabilities following the Ukraine war, according to a US intelligence report.

Moscow’s war in Ukraine has afforded it a “wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war,” the report said.

It also found that Russia will be unable to achieve a “total victory” in Ukraine – but that it retains momentum in the war effort.

The war has also increased the risk to the US of unintended escalation, included the potential use of nuclear weapons, the report added.

Downing Street said the UK would continue to work closely with the US on defence and security after the US defence secretary accused Europe of “freeloading”.

Asked whether the Government was sure the US administration understood UK contributions to defence and security in the Middle East, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We work daily with the US on regional security and stability in the Middle East and indeed in relation to Ukraine.

“The PM has always said that we’ve got one of the closest relationships with the US when it comes to defence and security and we expect that to continue.”

Europe must acquire all means to defend itself against military aggression, the European Council president has said.

Antonio Costa said on Tuesday that peace without defence is an illusion and added: “If Russia considers that Ukraine’s borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country’s borders?”

“If Russia considers that Ukraine’s borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country’s borders?”, he also said

In the grand rooms of Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, Washington’s team met with Ukrainian officials on Sunday, Russian officials on Monday, before reentering talks with Kyiv’s team for a time on Tuesday.

“We’re talking about territory right now. We’re talking about lines of demarcation, talking about power, power plant ownership. Some people are saying the United States should own the power plant…because we have the expertise,” Mr Trump said during a press briefing on Monday. He appears to be referring to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a topic which Volodymyr Zelensky said had come up in a recent phone call between the two presidents.

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Russia is struggling to protect its strategic military locations due to stretched air defences, the UK defence ministry has said, as it hails Ukraine’s “successful” targeting of a munitions depot.

Ukraine struck Russia’s Engels airfield overnight on 20 March, a site which holds Moscow’s nuclear-capable bomber planes and large amounts of munitions. The hit sparked a large blaze, evacuations and a number of injuries, according to Russian officials.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in its intelligence report that the strike will “disrupt strike operations from the airfield in the short term, forcing Russia to improve its defensive posture and replenish munitions stocks”.

The strike was “Ukraine’s most successful targeting of a Russian munitions depot in 2025 so far” and it “highlights the continuing struggles that stretched Russian air defence face in protecting its strategic military locations”, the ministry added.