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On Wednesday (26 March 2025), the Kremlin said that the US-brokered Black Sea maritime security agreement cannot be activated until certain conditions are met. Moscow stressed that the previous agreement, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, did not take into account its interests. This was reported by Reuters.
The day before, on Tuesday, the United States signed separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to end hostilities in the Black Sea and stop attacks on energy facilities. As part of the agreements, Washington agreed to work on lifting some sanctions against Moscow. Although Western sanctions do not directly affect Russia’s food and fertiliser exports, the Kremlin claims that restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance significantly hamper these shipments.
One of Russia’s key demands is to restore access to the SWIFT international payment system for the state-owned Rosselkhozbank. Implementation of this and other steps will require the consent of European countries. “As for the Black Sea grain initiative, it can only start working if a number of conditions are met,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a briefing for journalists. “These are the same conditions that were part of the original Black Sea Initiative. All of its points have been fulfilled, except for those concerning the Russian side. This time, justice must be restored, and we will continue to work with the Americans on this.”
In 2023, Russia withdrew from the initial agreement brokered by the UN and Turkey in 2022, claiming that the promised removal of obstacles to its food and fertiliser exports had not materialised. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the West has failed to fulfil its obligations, which led to the breakdown of the agreement.
The Kremlin’s current position indicates that it intends to use the new agreement as a lever to achieve its economic goals. At the same time, uncertainty over the reactions of European countries and Ukraine leaves the future of the deal in doubt. Negotiations with the US side are likely to continue, but success will depend on whether a compromise can be found that satisfies all parties to the conflict.
