WASHINGTON ( WNAM MONITORING ): US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is studying the Kremlin’s demands to extend a temporary limited ceasefire to the Black Sea.
“They will be looking at them, and we’re thinking about all of them right now. There are about five or six conditions. We’re looking at all of them,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The White House hours earlier announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” as well as halt all attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure.
But the Kremlin said that before the Black Sea truce could begin, the US would have to lift a series of sanctions on the Russian economy.
They include sanctions on the state-run Russian Agricultural Bank, and other financial institutions “involved in ensuring operations on international trade in food products (including fish products) and fertilizers, connecting them to SWIFT, and opening the necessary correspondent accounts.”
The Kremlin was referring to the SWIFT international payments system.
Other restrictions that would have to be lifted include restrictions on servicing Russian ships, and sanctions on Russian-flagged ships involved in the global food trade, as well as ending export controls on the supply of agricultural machinery to Russia.
The conditions would have to be met before Russia would formally signed off on the Black Sea truce.
