Zelenskyy ready to observe ceasefire following US-brokered deal

Ukraine is ready to proceed with a ceasefire prohibiting attacks on energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, in line with a deal that was brokered by the United States during three days of negotiations with Ukrainian and Russian officials in the Saudi capital.

Speaking in a video address yesterday [Macau time], Zelenskyy said Ukraine had agreed with U.S. negotiators “that a ceasefire for energy infrastructure can start today.” But, he warned, any strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities by Moscow would draw “strong retaliation.”

The comments underscored the tenuous agreements that came out of the three days of separate U.S-Ukrainian and U.S.-Russian talks in Riyadh. Washington said it had agreed with the warring parties to implement a pause on attacks on energy infrastructure as well as taking steps to ensure safe navigation for ships in the Black Sea.

Those talks were part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration toward a limited, 30-day ceasefire that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week, but has thus far failed to materialize as both sides continue to launch drone and rocket attacks against the other.

While Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. for its efforts to strike an agreement, questions remained over some key details, and a comprehensive peace deal to end the three-year war still looked distant.

Yesterday, the White House said in separate statements that the sides 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.”

Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey but halted by Russia the next year.

After the White House issued its statement, the Kremlin warned that a potential Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organizations involved in food and fertilizer trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments is ensured.

Zelenskyy later reacted to those demands, casting them as an example of Moscow “manipulating, twisting agreements, and lying” about the terms of the agreement.

“There are absolutely clear statements that have been published by the White House, everyone can see what is stated there,” Zelenskyy said. “And there is something that the Kremlin is lying about again: that supposedly the (ceasefire) in the Black Sea depends on the issue of sanctions.”

In an apparent reference to Moscow’s demands, the White House said the U.S. “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”

When asked about when Washington might help Moscow achieve those ambitions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that contacts between Russia and the U.S. “continue quite intensively,” and that authorities are “satisfied with how pragmatic, constructive and productive our dialogue is.”

Peskov said the 2022 Black Sea Grain initiative could be revived if Russia’s demands regarding agricultural and fertilizer exports are met. He said that those are the same demands that Russia initially put forward in the grain deal and that weren’t being fulfilled.

Peskov said that Putin’s order to pause strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, given on March 18 per an agreement with Trump, still stands, and that Russian forces are complying with it. He accused Kyiv of continuing to target Russia’s energy infrastructure but added that “we still believe that this moratorium (on strikes) should be observed.”

Ukrainian officials have reported multiple strikes against their energy sites since March 18. In a post on X, Zelenskyy’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said Moscow was “lying” about observing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

“They’ve been hitting our energy sites with bombs, attack drones, and FPV drones. We’re not going into all the details, but there have already been 8 confirmed hits on energy facilities,” Lytvyn wrote. “Every night our air defense forces shoot down nearly a hundred attack drones – and many of those drones were likely targeting other energy facilities.”

Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, came under the “most massive kamikaze drone attack since the beginning of the war” yesterday, the city administration head, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

Although no people were killed or injured, civilian infrastructure was widely targeted, Vikul said, including an administration building, warehouses, an industrial enterprise and a fire station. Multiple fires were sparked across the city, he said.

“Everyone is alive, thank God. It’s truly a miracle. The destruction is significant,” Vilkul said.

Civilian infrastructure also came under strike in the Sumy, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad regions, local authorities said. There were no immediate reports on any injuries.

Overall, Russian forces launched 117 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said yesterday, adding that 56 drones were destroyed and 48 more jammed by the defense forces. ILLIA NOVIKOV, KYIV, MDT/AP