Putin Suggests Temporary Administration For Ukraine To Move Toward Ending War
Ukraine reported multiple Russian drone strikes overnight, including the largest such strike on the city of Kriviy Rih since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion, while Russia claimed it downed two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and seven in other locations.The Kremlin, meanwhile, repeated that Russia would adhere to a Black Sea cease-fire agreement only "after a number of conditions are met." And Ukraine and Russia traded accusations of attacks on energy facilities, the subject of another agreement the United States said it had reinforced separately with Kyiv and Moscow.US President Donald Trump said his government was considering the Russian conditions and also allowed that Moscow "could be" dragging its feet as the United States seeks to broker a full cease-fire and an end to Russia's war in Ukraine as soon as possible. The mayor of Mykolayiv, a Ukrainian port city near the Black Sea sea, said emergency power cuts were implemented following reports of a Russian drone attacks on the region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said drone attacks also damaged infrastructure in the northeastern Sumy region, which borders Russia.In all, Ukraine's air defense units shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. It said 48 of the drones were lost, suggesting the military used electronic warfare to redirect them.The reports on March 26 came amid questions about when and how separate agreements the United States reached with Ukraine and Russia a day earlier to halt attacks over the Black Sea would come into force, with doubts stemming in part from conditions set by Moscow."Launching such large-scale attacks after cease-fire negotiations is a clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace," Zelenskyy wrote on X.The statement by the Russian Defense Ministry could not be independently verified, and it did not say whether the drones were aimed at targets on the Black Sea, a focus of fighting in its war against Ukraine, now in its fourth year since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, or were only flying over its waters.The Defense Ministry said the Russian military had also destroyed two drones over the Kursk region and five over the Belgorod region, both of which border Ukraine. The Belgorod regional governor said one civilian was hospitalized with head injuries and a drone caused minor damage to an apartment building.In Mykolayiv, it was not immediately clear whether the power outages were a precaution or a result of the overnight attack.Peace AgreementsIn addition to the Black Sea cease-fire, the White House said separate talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Saudi Arabia this week produced an agreement "to develop measures for implementing" recent commitments to halt strikes on energy facilities.In a further sign of potential trouble for the agreements, Ukraine and Russia accused each other of mounting attacks on energy facilities.On March 26, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine tried to attack civilian energy infrastructure in three locations, including a gas storage facility in Russian-occupied Crimea.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, claimed that Putin ordered a 30-day moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure in Ukraine on March 18 and that it was being fulfilled.Ukraine cried foul. Zelenskyy's deputy chief of staff, Ihor Zhovkva, said on television that Russia has attacked at least eight Ukrainian energy facilities since March 18.The head of the military administration in Kryviy Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, said that the overnight the drone attack there sparked fires and damaged buildings but caused no casualties. "Apparently, this is how the occupiers 'want peace'," he wrote on Telegram.The agreements reached at the separate US talks with Ukraine and Russia in Riyadh on March 23-25 appeared to be among the most concrete achievements in Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the war since he took office on January 20, but they left plenty of things unclear.The White House said in two separate statements about the talks that the Black Sea agreement would help restore Moscow’s access to global markets for Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports that have been cut off since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago."The United States will continue facilitating negotiations between both sides to achieve a peaceful resolution," the White House statements said.The agreements mark the first step toward a broader cease-fire deal to end the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, although the statements didn't mention ending strikes on other civilian infrastructure targets beyond energy.Russian CaveatsBoth Kyiv and Moscow confirmed the deal, although the Russian statement appeared to indicate major caveats for its side.In a statement about the US-Russia talks, the Kremlin said it would adhere to the agreement only once its state agriculture bank is reconnected to swift Europe, the international payment system, and some trade restrictions are lifted that were imposed on Moscow following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Photo Gallery:
Partial Cease-Fire, All-Out War: In Ukraine And Russia, A Harsh Reality Amid Peace Talks
Photos from throughout Ukraine and Russia show some of the most destructive drone strikes in recent weeks, launched after a partial cease-fire halting attacks on energy infrastructure was agreed.
Peskov told reporters on March 26 that the Black Sea agreement "can be activated after a number of conditions are implemented."The White House said in its own statement on March 25 that it “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”"We're thinking about all of them right now," Trump said when asked about the sanctions Russia says need to be lifted before it implements the Black Sea deal. "We're looking at all of them."Trump said later that Russia could be stalling on ending the war.“I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet,” Trump said in an interview with US broadcaster Newsmax.Reconnecting Russian banks to the SWIFT network could require approval from European countries. A European Commission spokesperson said on March 26 the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine would be one of the main conditions to lift or amend EU sanctions."The end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine would be one of the main preconditions to amend or lift sanctions," the spokesperson said.Later in the day, European Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said that the EU had taken note of the US talks with Ukraine and Russia."Russia must now demonstrate genuine political will to end its illegal and unprovoked war of aggression," Hipper said in a statement, adding: "Experience has shown that Russia must be judged by its actions, not by its words."Zelenskyy also commented on the agreements, saying that Kyiv intends to hold up its end and will push for further sanctions if Russia fails to do the same."It is too early to say that it will work, but these were the right meetings, the right decisions, the right steps," he said on March 25."If they violate, here is the evidence -- we ask for sanctions, we ask for weapons," Zelenskyy added.The Road Toward A Cease-FireWhile the agreements mark progress, the path forward remains unclear.In his comments to reporters following news of the Black Sea deal, Zelenskyy stated that the partial truce was effective immediately.But according to the Kremlin statement, the temporary moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure that started on March 18 and is valid for 30 days -- although it can be extended by mutual agreement.The Kremlin added that if the agreement is breached by one party, the other party is also released from compliance.This led to Zelenskyy accusing Russia of lying about the outcome of talks with US negotiators.“The Kremlin is lying again, claiming that the Black Sea cease-fire supposedly depends on sanctions and that the energy cease-fire supposedly began on March 18," he said in his nightly address to Ukrainians. "Moscow always lies."Oil refineries, oil and gas pipelines, and nuclear power stations are among the targets that Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily stop attacking.A list posted on the Kremlin's Telegram channel and said to be "agreed between the Russian and American sides" also included fuel storage facilities, pumping stations, and other infrastructure used for electricity generation like power plants, transformers, and hydroelectric dams.Other questions remain over the Kremlin's desire to have trade and payment restrictions lifted on its agriculture bank, and any coordination with European governments that may be required to do so.The EU placed its own sanctions on Moscow and in an article published on March 24, David O'Sullivan, the European Union’s sanctions envoy, said that the bloc remains committed to keeping Russia sanctions in place despite pressure to ease them."Whatever the US now does, no reason exists to change course," O'Sullivan wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) think tank.In another sign of how arduous the talks have been and the difficulties that lie ahead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments that the Kremlin will need "clear guarantees" from Washington that Ukraine will respect the deal.Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who took part in the talks, said on X that Kyiv would see any movement of Russian naval vessels beyond the eastern Black Sea as a violation of the spirit of the agreements reached in Riyadh.The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine will also remain in Russia’s control, the Russian Foreign Ministry said following the end of the talks.The ministry said transferring control to Ukraine or other countries would be impossible -- as would operating it jointly -- because of concerns over physical and nuclear safety.Trump last week floated the idea of the US taking control of the power plant, which was seized by Russia early in the war.The United States also said it is committed to helping Ukraine exchange prisoners of war, release civilian detainees, and return “forcibly transferred Ukrainian children,” as measures to achieve a durable cease-fire between Kyiv and Moscow.Why Is The Black Sea Important For Russia And Ukraine?Both Kyiv and Moscow rely on the Black Sea for commodity exports.With the help of Turkey and the United Nations, both countries brokered a deal in mid-2022 allowing Ukraine to ship grain through the sea, but Russia withdrew from the agreement the following year as it argued that Western sanctions on its banks were severely limiting its ability to export agricultural products.Russian then said it would view any vessel bound for Ukraine as a potential military target.The Ukrainian military responded with a campaign that destroyed Russian warships and eventually pushed the Russian Navy out of the western parts of the Black Sea.The operation allowed Ukraine to establish a new shipping zone in the Black Sea and return seaborne grain exports to near-prewar levels.
