(Reuters) – Ukraine’s defence minister said Kyiv agreed to two ceasefire agreements with Russia that were announced by the United States on Tuesday and that Kyiv would welcome third countries supporting the implementation of the accords.
The United States 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.
“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,” Defence Minister Rustem Umerov wrote on X.
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.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Gareth Jones and Ros Russell)
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