What is in the Black Sea ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine – and how significant is it?
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.
A Ukrainian patrol boat in the Black Sea in 2024. Pic: Reuters
“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.
At least 20 people have died after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Afghanistan, the Taliban has said.
The tremor was recorded near the city of Mazar-e Sharif, in the northern Balkh province, at around 12.59am on Monday (8.29pm in the UK).
The Taliban Health Ministry added that 320 were injured, while ministry spokesperson Sharfat Zaman said that the numbers of dead and injured might rise.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has issued an orange alert on its system of quake impacts, and suggested that “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread”.
A rescuer works following an earthquake at an unidentified location in Afghanistan. Pic: Afghan Red Crescent / Reuters
Previous events at that alert level have required a regional or national level response, according to the USGS’s alert system.
Balkh province spokesperson Haji Zaid added that the earthquake destroyed part of the city’s holy shrine, known as the Blue Mosque.
Soldiers dig up debris after an earthquake in Mazar-e Sharif, northern Afghanistan. Pic: Haji Zaid
Damage to the Blue Mosque in Mazar-e Sharif. Pic: Haji Zaid
The United Nations in Afghanistan said on X that it is on the ground assessing needs and delivering aid, and that: “We stand with the affected communities and will provide the necessary support.”
Mazar-e Sharif is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of around 523,000.
Located on two major active fault lines, Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes: More than 1,400 people were killed and at least 3,250 others injured after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit the country’s eastern regions in September.
That tremor wiped out villages in the Mazar Dara valley, which Sky’s Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch visited in October.
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In 2015, an earthquake struck northeastern Afghanistan, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.
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Four large earthquakes also struck in the Herat province in 2023, each magnitude 6.3. The Taliban said at the time that at least 2,445 people had died.
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A total of 28 people have died following Hurricane Melissa’s rampage across Jamaica, the government has confirmed.
Melissa, one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall in the Caribbean, brought with it winds of up to 185mph when it hit the island earlier this week.
The Red Cross described it as a “disaster of unprecedented catastrophe”.
Melissa ravaged through Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.
It weakened by the time it reached Cuba on Wednesday morning but still brought devastation – with houses collapsed and roads blocked.
A statement from the government of Jamaica said it was “deeply saddened to confirm 28 fatalities associated with the passage of Hurricane Melissa”.
It went on: “We extend heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and communities mourning their loved ones.”
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The confirmation came as the first British repatriation flight was setting off from the island on Saturday evening local time.
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The flight, chartered by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, was for those “unable to leave Jamaica on commercial routes”.
Essential relief supplies are now rolling into some of the hardest hit areas.
Humanitarian aid has arrived and is waiting to be distributed. Pic: AP
The UK government is mobilising an additional £5m in emergency humanitarian funding – on top of £2.5m announced earlier this week – to support the region’s recovery.
This new funding will enable the UK to send humanitarian supplies – including more than 3,000 shelter kits and over 1,500 solar-powered lanterns to help those whose homes have been damaged and those without power.
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The UK is working with the World Food Programme and Red Cross, to ensure emergency relief reaches those who need it most.
At least 25 people died in the southern Haitian coastal town of Petit-Goave after the La Digue river burst its banks as a result of the hurricane, according to the town’s mayor Jean Bertrand Subreme.
Ukrainian soldiers encircled by Russian forces in the key eastern city of Pokrovsk have started surrendering, the defence ministry in Moscow claims.
But Ukraine‘s military has pushed back on the report by the TASS state news agency, saying the situation is “difficult and dynamic”.
Kyiv has also claimed its positions in some districts of Pokrovsk have improved despite its city being infiltrated by Russian troops.
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Ukraine is increasing its number of assault troops in the area, the 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Facebook.
And Ukrainian troops are also working to cut Moscow’s military logistics routes, it added.
The Russian defence ministry also said its forces defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces that headed to Pokrovsk in a bid to prevent Russian forces from advancing further into the city.
‘Footage of Ukrainian troops after surrendering’
It later posted videos of two Ukrainian troops who, it claimed, had surrendered.
The footage showed the men, one dressed in fatigues and the other in a dark green jacket, sat against a wall in a dark room, as they spoke of fierce fighting and encirclement by Russian forces.
The videos’ authenticity could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate public comment from Kyiv on the Russian ministry’s claims.
Ukrainian police officers on patrol in Pokrovsk. File pic: Reuters
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously acknowledged that some Russian units had infiltrated the city. But he maintained that Ukraine is tackling them.
He said Russia had deployed 170,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, where Pokrovsk is located, in a major offensive to capture the city and claim a big battlefield victory.
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‘Operation to destroy enemy forces’
Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Saturday the situation in Pokrovsk remained “hardest” for Ukrainian forces, who were trying to push Russian troops out.
But he insisted there was no encirclement or blockade as Moscow has claimed.
“A comprehensive operation to destroy and push out enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing. The main burden lies on the shoulders of the units of the armed forces of Ukraine, particularly UAV operators and assault units,” Mr Syrskyi said.
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Why is Pokrovsk important?
One of Moscow’s key aims has been to take all of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of coal-rich Donbas, which comprises of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about 10% of Donbas.
Capturing Pokrovsk, which Russian media has dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
‘Key Russian fuel pipeline struck’
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as HUR, has said its forces have hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army.
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In a statement on Telegram, HUR said the operation late on Friday was a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics.
HUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which is 250 miles long and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
The operation, which targeted infrastructure near Ramensky district, destroyed all three fuel lines, HUR said.
The pipeline was capable of transporting up to three million tonnes of jet fuel, 2.8 million tonnes of diesel and 1.6 million tonnes of gasoline annually, HUR said.
Russia ‘targets gas production site’
Also overnight, Russia launched an attack on a gas production site in Poltava, in central Ukraine.
A fire broke out, the local administration said, but no injuries were reported.
Kyiv condemns ‘nuclear terrorism’
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has condemned Russian strikes this week on substations powering some of its nuclear plants.
It accused Russia of carrying out “targeted strikes on such substations” which “bear the hallmarks of nuclear terrorism”.
Elsewhere, a civilian died and 15 more were injured on Saturday morning after Russia struck the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine with a ballistic Iskander missile, local official Vitaliy Kim said.
A child was among those hurt in the strike, he added.
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