Tom Joyner
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

After weeks of high-level talks punctuated by frequent stops and starts, Russia and Ukraine have given the strongest signal yet they are willing to lay down arms – even if only in part.

The White House says it has brokered an agreement between the two countries to halt military activity over the Black Sea after its officials met separately with counterparts from Moscow and Kyiv in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh.

It's a different deal to the more ambitious one touted only weeks earlier, as BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale points out, when the US and Ukraine held talks in Jeddah.

The new agreement is fraught with complications, including Russia's list of conditions. The Kremlin said it won't commit until sanctions are lifted and membership to the Swift payment network is reinstated, demands Trump says he is considering. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of lying about the terms of the agreement.

There are other worries about how durable the deal could be. Russia has broken agreements in the past, and the White House has given little indication it's negotiating in Ukraine's interest alone. Ukraine says the movement of Russian warships westward will be treated as a violation of terms.

Even so, Zelensky is showing cautious optimism, telling reporters the deal represents "the right steps" towards peace.

As BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner writes, there is a temptation by both camps to keep fighting, but for now it's the best chance they've got to lay groundwork for a wider ceasefire.

Moscow has published a list of Russian and Ukrainian energy facilities, external it says US and Russian delegations agreed should not be attacked as part of today's agreement.

It includes:

• Oil refineries
• Oil and gas pipelines and storage facilities, including pumping stations
• Electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, including power plants, substations, transformers and distributors
• Nuclear power plants
• Hydroelectric dams

Russia claims the pause in hostilities on energy targets came into affect on 18 March for 30 days, and says this may be extended by mutual agreement.

Both Moscow and Kyiv accused the other of breaching the initial deal to halt attacks on energy facilities within hours of it being announced earlier this month.

Image source, Reuters

We've just been hearing from US President Donald Trump who has been meeting US ambassadors at the White House.

He's asked by a reporter about the sanctions Russia says need to be lifted by the US before it implements the Black Sea deal.

"We're thinking about all of them right now," Trump tells reporters. "We're looking at all of them."

Russia says sanctions need to be lifted on banks involved in international trade in food and fertilisers, as well as being fully reconnected to Swift - a network that facilitates secure financial messaging.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of lying about the terms agreed with American negotiators.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Before we close our live page, let's bring you more reaction to the deal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has in the last few moments accused Russia of lying about the outcome of talks with the American negotiators.

“The Kremlin is lying again, claiming that the Black Sea ceasefire supposedly depends on sanctions and that the energy ceasefire supposedly began on 18 March. Moscow always lies,” he said in his nightly address to Ukrainians.

He said the statement published by the White House is "absolutely clear", adding: "It depends on the world and on all those who really need peace whether Russia will be allowed to lie again."

Since news of the Black Sea ceasefire broke this afternoon, we've had a flurry of statements from the US, Ukraine and Russia:

• It began when the White House announced Russia and Ukraine had agreed to ensure safe passage for commercial shipping in the Black Sea - and to stop military strikes
• The statements were released after US talks in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian and Russian teams

• The Ukrainian defence ministry then said the movement of Russian warships outside the "eastern part of the Black Sea" would be treated as a violation of the agreement
• President Zelensky called the deal a "step in the right direction" but that it was "too early" to say whether it would work
• Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov - who took part in the Riyadh talks with the US - said "technical consultations" were needed "as soon as possible to agree on all the details and technical aspects of the implementation, monitoring and control of the arrangements"

• And Russia said certain sanctions must be lifted from banks, food producers and exporters before the ceasefire could come into effect

Image source, EPA

Odesa is a Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea which has come under regular Russian attack since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Reuters news agency has spoken to residents of the city, to get their reaction to today's Black Sea ceasefire announcement.

"They [Russians] never keep their words. All these deals will not be in Ukraine’s favour," says Inna Zhelezniak.

"Putin and not only Putin – everyone in his government are terrorists," adds Anastasiia Drachenko. "That’s impossible, completely impossible to believe that this time they indeed will do what they promised."

Meanwhile, Nadiia says: "We want peaceful nights very much. It is spring now, we want to spend more time outside, walk calmly with the child."

Image source, Reuters

More reaction to the Black Sea deal now - in the UK, Downing Street has struck a cautiously optimistic note.

"Our position at the moment is that we are obviously hopeful of the progress," a spokeswoman for No 10 says, adding they were closely following developments.

The spokeswoman declines to say whether the UK is planning to ease any sanctions on Russia - as a reminder, Russia says certain sanctions must be eased before the ceasefire begins.

We've talked a lot about the Black Sea - but where exactly is it?

The sea is located south of Ukraine and to the west of Russia, and is also bordered by Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Georgia.

It's also bordered by parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine - including Crimea.

It is a vital shipping route for Ukrainian exports, and after Russia pulled of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in 2023, it said it would view any vessel bound for Ukraine as a potential military target.

As a result, Ukraine's grain exports slumped.

So many ways this could still unwindpublished at 17:16 Greenwich Mean Time

17:16 GMT

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

The Riyadh talks have been, on the surface, a success. The goals were far less ambitious than the proposal to emerge from the earlier Jeddah talks, namely a full 30-day ceasefire on land, sea and air. But even getting this limited maritime agreement in principle from both warring parties is a start.

But there is so little trust between Russia and Ukraine that there is a temptation by both sides to keep shooting at each other even after a deal is agreed.

It is all too easy to see a scenario in which this agreement falls apart: Ukraine could accuse the Russian navy of moving westwards in violation of the deal, Moscow denies it. Ukraine says it has no choice but to fire on the Russians in self-defence, Russia resumes targeting Ukrainian ships and then the deal is dead in the water.

Then there is the risk of one side accusing the other of carrying out a "false flag attack" - pretending it has been attacked by the other when in reality it staged the attack itself to discredit the other nation.

That said, Russia is clearly keen to restart its commercial exports through the Black Sea and Ukraine would certainly like to ship out its grain from ports like Odesa without being hit by Russian missiles.

So despite the risks, this could, just possibly, be something to build on towards a more wide-ranging ceasefire.

Just before the Black Sea agreement was announced, we heard from Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence.

In a briefing before the Senate intelligence committee, she said Russia remained a major security threat, particularly because of its cyber attack capabilities and its vast nuclear arsenal.

"Among Russia's most concerning developments is a new satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon," she has told the committee.

Image source, Reuters

More from Zelensky now, who says the deal to halt strikes in the Black Sea is a step in the right direction.

"It is too early to say that it will work, but these were the right meetings, the right decisions, the right steps," he has told reporters in Kyiv.

"No one can accuse Ukraine of not moving towards sustainable peace after this."

US President Trump has previously accused Zelensky of standing in the way of peace negotiations.

"This guy doesn't want there to be Peace as long as he has America's backing," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, just days after his dramatic showdown with Zelensky in the Oval Office.

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent in Kyiv

We’ve now got two statements: one between the US and Russia, one between the US and Ukraine.

They are similar in parts - not identical - but the key line is that both sides have agreed an effective maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.

The US, Russia and Ukraine “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”, the statement says.

For the first time we have actual commitments from both Ukraine and Russia to end the fighting in the Black Sea. It hasn’t been the centre of the conflict for quite some time, but it is definitely a step forward.

The Russians have clearly agreed to do it - the quid pro quo is that they are going to get help from the US to allow their agricultural and fertiliser products to get to the international market.

In other words, they are seeing it as a revival of the old Black Sea Grain Initiative that they pulled out of back in 2023.

In terms of the Ukrainians, the agreement that they’ve got is that the US will “remain committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children”.

Both sides have now also agreed to “develop measures for implementing a ban on strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine”. In other words, they’re going to try and do it but we don’t know yet whether they will succeed in doing so.

In summary, some progress has been made, but it’s still not the comprehensive ceasefire the US originally wanted.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

The Kremlin has now published a statement on Saudi talks with the US, and there are a number of conditions it says the Black Sea deal comes attached with.

It says the agreement will only come into force after sanctions are lifted from Russian banks involved in international trade in food and fertilisers, and they are fully reconnected to Swift - a network that facilitates secure financial messaging between banks.

This means Russia is effectively saying sanctions must be lifted from its banks, food producers and exporters, as well as insurers involved in food exports, before a ceasefire in the Black Sea comes into effect.

Image source, Reuters

We're hearing now from President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says Ukraine will hold up its end of the agreement and will push for further sanctions if Russia fails to do the same.

"If the Russians violate this, then I have a direct question for President Trump," he tells reporters in Kyiv.

"If they violate, here is the evidence - we ask for sanctions, we ask for weapons."

We're yet to hear from Russia about the agreement on ending hostilities in the Black Sea, which has been brokered by the US.

But the Russian state-owned Tass news agency reports that the Kremlin will publish a statement in the very near future, citing spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

We'll bring you all the key lines as we get them.

The Ukrainian defence ministry has released its own statement on the deal, which largely follows the same wording as the White House.

But it also adds that the movement of Russian warships outside of the "eastern part of the Black Sea" will be treated as a violation of the agreement and a "threat to the national security of Ukraine".

"In this case Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defence," the defence ministry statement says on X.

The defence ministry adds that "additional technical consultations" will be needed for the "effective implementation" of what has been agreed.

Here are the key points from the statement released by the White House following its talks with Russia in Riyadh:

• The US and Russia have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent use of commercial vessels for military use in the Black Sea
• The US says Russia agreed to develop measures to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in Ukraine and Russia

The US also says Ukraine has agreed to these two points.

The statement adds:

• The US will help to restore Russia's access to exporting agricultural and fertiliser products and enhance access to ports

The White House says both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to ensure safe passage for commercial shipping and stop military strikes in the Black Sea.

We'll bring you more details and lines from the White House statement on US talks with the Russian delegation in the next post.

We've just received a statement from the White House on the talks between the US and Ukrainian delegations in Riyadh. It says:

• The US and Ukraine has agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea
• The two countries remain committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, release of civilian detainees and return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children
• Kyiv and Washington agreed to develop measures for implementing a ban on strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine
• The US and Ukraine will continue working towards a "durable and lasting peace", and welcome third countries to support the implementation of maritime and energy agreements

It adds the US reiterated to both sides in the war that the killing has to stop and it will continue facilitating negotiations.

Image source, EPA

Europe must acquire all means to defend itself against military aggression, the president of the European Council has said.

"If Russia considers that Ukraine's borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country's borders?" Antonio Costa asks in a speech at the European Policy Centre.

Costa adds that peace without defence is an "illusion" and that Europe needs to continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine to create lasting peace in Europe.

“Russia’s aggression gave a new sense of urgency to our strategic autonomy, not only on energy but also on defence,” he says, adding there needs to be a “collective effort to boost our defence spending by more than 30%, paving the way for decisions which are shaping a Europe of defence”.