Russia said today that it is willing to conclude a new deal on the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, a possible step towards a truce with Ukraine, however, if the US ordered President Volodimir Zelenski to respect it.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that only such a mandate would provide the guarantees that Russia needed.

Moscow and Kiev criticize each other for collapse in 2023 an agreement aimed at guaranteeing the safety of Merchant Shipping in the Black Sea after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

“We will need clear guarantees. And given the sad experience of the agreements arising only with Kiev, guarantees can only be the result of a command from Washington to Zelenski and his team to do one thing and not the other, “Lavrov said during his television statements.

“And it seems that the American partners have received this message. They understand that only Washington can achieve positive results in stopping terrorist attacks, stop pounding political infrastructure, energy infrastructure that is not related to military-industrial complexes. “

Lavrov statements show that Russia will ask for further American pressure on Zelenski before agreeing on a sea ceasefire, which Washington says it would be an important step towards a more comprehensive truce.

According to him, the issue was at the center of Russian -American talks in Saudi Arabia yesterday, which, as they all show, have not reached any agreement on even a limited truce that would allow commercial navigation in the Black Sea.

“We are, as President (Vladimir) Putin said, in favor of repetition, in one or another form of the Black Sea initiative,” he said, referring to an agreement that left Russia in 2023, which would allow Ukraine to export it.

Kiev managed to open a maritime corridor that would allow him to export, but his ports, especially that of Odessa and his grain ships that were there, are often affected by the Russian army.

Lavrov also said that his country also called for the restrictions to the detriment of Russian exports during the negotiations, about 12 hours yesterday in Saudi Arabia between the Russians and the Americans.

“We now need to create the guarantees and mechanisms, as much as possible, the most clear, the most tangible, the most reliable and the most realistic,” he underlined.

“We want the grain market, we want the fertilizer market to be predictable, we want no one trying to exclude us from this market,” the Russian minister said.