Words. Lots of them.

Two statements from the White House – one about negotiations with Ukraine, another about negotiations with Russia.

A version from Ukraine’s president and another from the Kremlin.

Follow live: Black Sea ceasefire deal reached after Saudi talks

Analysing the substance of the US-brokered agreement between Russia and Ukraine requires a sifting of the spin from all sides.

The read-outs from the White House are almost word-for-word, basically just swapping out the names of each country and each president.

But there are notable differences between Ukraine’s take and Russia’s take on what they each signed up to.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy focuses on the potential involvement of third countries to support the implementation of the agreements.

We know he does not trust Vladimir Putin, but it sounds like he doesn’t trust Donald Trump either.

The Kremlin, on the other hand, focuses on the lifting of sanctions against companies exporting food and fertiliser.

In fact, Moscow says those sanctions must go before any ceasefire begins.

If that’s what Moscow expects, there is one big winner: Mr Putin.

Explainer: What is in the Black Sea ceasefire deal

Ceasefires around energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea are progress, but not the peace Mr Trump promised, and at what price?

The man who said he would end the war within a day of taking office won’t win the Nobel Peace Prize for this.

Asked how the ceasefire would be monitored, Mr Trump replied: “Well, they’re going to get together.

“… there’s tremendous animosity, there’s a lot of hatred you can probably tell, and it allows for people to get together, mediate it, arbitrate it, and see if we can get it stopped, and I think it will.”

More words, but ultimately it comes down to actions – the extent to which ceasefires are observed.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a Black Sea ceasefire deal.

The agreement came after Ukraine and US delegations held talks in Saudi Arabia today.

But what is the Black Sea deal – and is it a full ceasefire?

Follow live: Black Sea ceasefire deal reached after Saudi talks

What is in the Black Sea ceasefire deal?

These are the main aspects of the deal set out by the US:

• The US and Russia have agreed to safe navigation in the Black Sea, which had been a key focus of talks this week
• Additionally, they agreed to work together on measures banning strikes on energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine
• Washington will also help to restore Russia’s access to global markets for agricultural and fertiliser exports, the White House said – although where this leaves Western sanctions against Russia is unclear at this stage.

The US also said it has agreed it will remain committed to returning forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.

Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov confirmed the agreement, but added that Kyiv maintains any movement by Russian military vessels outside of eastern part of the Black Sea will constitute violation of the spirit of this agreement.

“In this case Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defence,” he said.

He added: “All parties agreed to develop measures for implementing the presidents’ agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities of Ukraine and Russia.”

The Kremlin has confirmed that it has agreed to the ceasefire but there has been a disagreement over the timing and conditions.

While Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he understood the ceasefire would start immediately after the US announcement, Moscow has countered, saying it will only come into force after Western sanctions are lifted against companies involved in food and fertiliser exports.

How significant is this?

The deal won’t do much to end the war, according to Sky News’ security analyst Michael Clarke.

He says Russia will be quite happy dragging the US through peace talks without making any meaningful concessions.

The deal is one the US “can boast about” – without it changing much on the ground for Ukraine, he says.

“The Russians will be quite happy about that because they’ll just keep going down more and more rabbit holes and they’ll present little gains for the US,” he explains.

“But they won’t address the central issue,” he says.

No real deal can be agreed unless Donald Trump starts putting meaningful pressure on Vladimir Putin, he says.

“Unless the Americans are prepared to pressure Russia as opposed to just keeping offering them more advantages, the war will just go on.”

He also says Mr Trump will stay interested until it “gets difficult”, at which point he’ll “just go onto something else”.

“He’s a disrupter, but when disruption becomes hard to follow through, he goes on to the next topic, and I think that’s what will happen.”

Why is Russia willing to agree to a ceasefire at sea now?

Under the ceasefire at sea, Russia would once again be able to export farm produce and fertiliser through the Black Sea, getting relief from sanctions imposed by Western countries.

The US even referred to helping Russia access the world market again for agricultural products in its statement.

According to Prof Clarke, Russia is happy to continue fighting on land, where it is slowly making gains, while signing up to something that protects its ships at sea – where Ukraine has been growing in confidence and damaging Russian vessels.

And it helps with Russia’s goal of getting its equipment out of the Black Sea.

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Why is the Black Sea so important to Russia?

Today’s agreement has come in the midst of negotiations between Russia, the US and Ukraine in Riyadh in recent days centred on the Black Sea.

But the basis of the negotiations was a deal to secure shipping there that collapsed more than 18 months ago.

That UN-backed deal was negotiated in July 2022 between Turkey, the UN and Russia as a way of ensuring that Ukraine, one of the breadbaskets of the world, could keep exporting grain via its southern ports without being attacked.

It was known as the Black Sea grain initiative.

That deal benefited Russia, as it also allowed for greater Russian agricultural exports – but but Moscow pulled out of the initiative in July 2023 after accusing the West of reneging on this part of the agreement.

This meant Russia stopped granting safe passage to cargo ships going to and from Ukraine, and the country’s grain exports subsequently slumped.

But Russia is now said to be keen to revive parts of the grain deal.

What happened the last time Ukraine and Russia had a ceasefire agreement?

Last week, Mr Putin agreed to an immediate 30-day pause in strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

However, within 24 hours Ukraine and Russia accused the other of breaking the pledge.

World Athletics will introduce mandatory testing for anyone entering female competitions to verify their biological sex, insisting they are necessary to protect women’s sport.

It is the latest move overseen by Sebastian Coe – as president of the governing body – to address the gender eligibility issue, two years after banning anyone assigned male at birth from female events.

Lord Coe said after a World Athletics Council meeting today that they could adopt non-invasive cheek swab tests or dry blood tests that only have to be carried out once on an athlete.

“This we feel is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition,” he said.

The tests would seek to verify if someone has transitioned to a female after going through male puberty or if they had differences of sex development that provided testosterone advantages.

Testing providers are now being sought.

Lord Coe said: “The pre-clearance testing will be for athletes to be able to compete in the female category.

“The process is very straightforward frankly, very clear and it’s an important one and we will work on the timelines.

“Neither of these are invasive. They are necessary and they will be done to absolute medical standards.”

It follows US President Donald Trump, ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, saying there are only two sexes – male and female – while calling on sports to ban transgender women from women’s events.

The International Olympic Committee has previously called a return to sex testing a “bad idea”, but incoming IOC President Kirsty Coventry is not ruling it out, having also talked about protecting the female category.

“This is a conversation that’s happened and the international federations have taken a far greater lead in this conversation,” she told Sky News after her election last week.

“What I was proposing is to bring a group together with the international federations and really understand each sport is slightly different.

“We know in equestrian, sex is really not an issue, but in other sports it is.

“So what I’d like to do again is bring the international federations together and sit down and try and come up with a collective way forward for all of us to move.”

Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, last year called on the IOC to reintroduce sex testing or female athletes to protect them from injuries amid concerns about eligibility.

The IOC introduced “certificates of femininity” at the 1968 Mexico Games. But those chromosome-based tests were deemed unscientific and unethical and dropped ahead of Sydney 2000.

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