MOSCOW: Russia stated Tuesday that it would be open to reaching a new deal on Black Sea shipping safety, which might be a first step toward a truce with Ukraine, but only if President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was given an order by the US to abide by it.
Only such an order, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, would give Russia the guarantees it required.
Following Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, an earlier agreement aimed at ensuring the safety of merchant vessels in the Black Sea collapsed in 2023, prompting criticism from both sides.
