U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is scheduled to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in the Black Sea with his Russian counterpart later on March 25, Fox News reported.
Waltz has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin's top aide, Yuri Ushakov, to hammer out conditions on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
The resumption of a Black Sea Initiative that would include a cessation of hostilities in the Black Sea was the key focus of the talks between U.S. and Russian delegates in Riyadh on March 24.
Neither party revealed details about the 12-hour talks, which were followed by a brief meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian teams on March 25. Russian negotiator Grigory Karasin said that many issues had been discussed during the meeting, but "not everything was resolved."
The so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative was first brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in 2022 to allow Ukraine to ship out its grain despite Russia's ongoing invasion. The deal broke down a year later after Russia withdrew from the deal, claiming that its demands, namely pertaining to its fertilizer industry, had not been addressed.
Despite the initial deal breaking down in 2023, Ukraine has managed to unilaterally reopen the Black Sea corridor, in large part thanks to a sustained drone and missile campaign against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Fox News also reported that Waltz does not plan to resign after reports of leaks of U.S. plans for strikes against Yemen. The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported on March 24 that he was accidentally added by a user named Mike Waltz to a Signal chat where top Trump administration officials discussed plans for the operation.
This prompted rumors that Waltz might be forced out as a result of the embarrassing security breach. The advisor told his colleagues he had never met or spoken to Goldberg, according to Fox News.
The Kyiv Independent
(Updated: )
