Russia Ties A Black Sea Truce To Lifting Of Some Sanctions
The White House had said earlier that Russia and Ukraine had both agreed to "eliminate the use of force" in the Black Sea, following separate talks with the two sides in Saudi Arabia.
Russia said Tuesday that a US-brokered agreement to halt military activity in the Black Sea would only take effect once certain sanctions were lifted, including those targeting its state-owned agricultural lender.
The White House had said earlier that Russia and Ukraine had both agreed to “eliminate the use of force" in the Black Sea, following separate talks with the two sides in Saudi Arabia.
related stories
- UK Says Russia Presents ‘Acute Threat’ To Its National Security
- North Korea Has Sent 3,000 Soldiers This Year To Bolster Russia’s Ukraine War, Seoul Says
- US Says Russia, Ukraine Agree To Avoid Military Strikes On Vessels In Black Sea
- 'It's Our Turn': Russia's Lavrov Says Putin Will Be In India Soon, First Time Since Start Of Ukraine War
The US side did not mention lifting sanctions in its statement, only that it would help restore “access to the world market" for Russia’s agricultural and fertiliser exports.
The Kremlin said the truce would “enter into force after the lifting of sanctions on Rosselkhozbank (Russia’s state-owned agricultural lender) and other financial institutions involved in providing international trade operations in food and fertilisers."
It also called for those institutions to be re-connected to the SWIFT network, an international payment system that some Russian banks have been blocked from using.
The West has not directly sanctioned Russian agriculture, but Moscow has long complained that restrictions on shipping insurance and its state lender Rosselkhozbank — which provides financing to agribusiness — have frustrated its exports.
The Kremlin said it had also agreed to work with the United States on the logistics of a 30-day energy truce announced by President Vladimir Putin last week, which Kyiv has accused Moscow of repeatedly breaking.
“Russia and the US agreed to develop measures to implement the agreements of the presidents of the two countries to ban strikes on Russian and Ukrainian energy facilities," it said.
The Kremlin said it agreed that third countries could take part in overseeing aspects of any future truce.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters earlier that countries such as Turkey could monitor aspects of it.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - AFP)- Location :
- First Published: