Ukraine and Russia agree to truce deals in first steps to end war

Moscow/Washington/Kyiv — Ukraine’s defence minister said Kyiv had agreed to two ceasefire deals with Russia that were announced by the US on Tuesday and Kyiv would welcome third countries supporting the implementation of the accords.

The US said earlier it had made separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in the two countries.

The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that Washington sees as a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine.

The White House said in a statement that Washington would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports and would continue facilitating talks on both sides in a bid towards achieving a sustainable peace.

Ukraine defence minister Rustem Umerov wrote on X: “All parties have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

He said, however, that Kyiv would regard any movement of Russian naval vessels beyond the eastern Black Sea as a violation of the spirit of the agreements and that, in such an event, it would have the right to self-defence. He added: “All parties agreed to develop measures for implementing the presidents’ agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities of Ukraine and Russia.”

Ukraine has used long-range combat drones to pound Russian oil infrastructure such as refineries in an effort to hurt its much larger foe. Moscow has rained down missiles and drones far behind the front lines in Ukraine since the February 2022 full-scale invasion.

In particular, Russian strikes have hammered Ukrainian power stations, causing large-scale blackouts, and more recently also natural gas production sites.

Russia said earlier on Tuesday it was willing to strike an agreement on the safety of Black Sea shipping but only if the US ordered President Volodymyr Zelensky to respect it.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said only such an order would provide the assurances that Russia needed.

Each side had criticised the other over the collapse in 2023 of an earlier agreement intended to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea.

“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, which have killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine.

Update: March 25 2025
This story has been updated with new information. 

Reuters