The United States has reached a tentative deal with Ukraine and Russia that could see the two warring nations halt attacks on maritime targets—at least temporarily.
“We are making a lot of progress,” President Donald Trump said on Tuesday at the White House.
Many details remain unresolved, and the Kremlin has made clear that no document was signed and that it will not accept a deal without the lifting of some sanctions by the United States.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy has meanwhile expressed skepticism that lifting sanctions on Russia would be to the benefit of the international order.
“We believe that it would weaken our position,” he said.
But Zelenksyy also made clear that Ukraine was willing to commit to a full, 30-day ceasefire proposed by Trump earlier in the month which Russia has rejected.
The maritime security deal announced on Monday appears to effectively recreate much of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia unilaterally withdrew from in 2023.
That deal allowed Ukrainian and Russian commercial vessels to travel through specific corridors of the Black Sea without being attacked—provided they were inspected by international watch dogs to ensure no arms were being smuggled.
The White House said that the sides “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
The White House also appeared to cede to some of Moscow’s demands, saying that the United States “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.”
Announcement of the deal came as the United States wrapped up three days of talks with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia, and follow a series of setbacks to a previous partial ceasefire which sought to limit attacks on energy infrastructure.
A more permanent or wide-ranging ceasefire remains distant, with leadership in Kyiv and Moscow hesitant to give up too much too soon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated his demands that a cessation of hostilities would require a total halt of arms shipments by all nations to Ukraine, and an immediate end to Ukraine’s military mobilization.
—Andrew Thornebrooke
SIGNAL LEAK
As he tells it, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg recently found himself inadvertently added into a group text where several senior Trump administration members proceeded to discuss sensitive details about impending U.S. strikes on Yemen’s Houthis.
The U.S. military renewed its strikes on Yemen on March 15, just days after the Houthis threatened to resume missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea. In a March 24 article for his publication, Goldberg reported he gained advanced notice of the strikes after a user of the Signal encrypted messaging app named “Michael Waltz”—a name shared by Trump’s national security adviser—added him to a Signal group chat.
Goldberg reported that the group chat appeared to include Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, among others.
The Atlantic’s editor suggested these senior administration officials discussed several items of a highly sensitive nature. For instance, Goldberg reported Hegseth described the targets in Yemen to be struck, as well as the timing and the weapons to be used.
At another point, Goldberg reported Ratcliffe named a CIA employee as a point of contact for further discussions. Goldberg wrote that he withheld the CIA employee’s name “because that person is an active intelligence officer.”
The National Security Council has since confirmed that the chat Goldberg described appears to be authentic. Now they’re looking into how Goldberg was looped in, and how his presence went unnoticed as long as it had.
Some lawmakers have begun pushing for a separate investigation into the episode. In a Monday Senate floor speech, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted the Signal app is not secure and isn’t an appropriate venue for the kind of discussions Goldberg described.
At a Tuesday Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Ratcliffe and Gabbard both insisted they were unaware of any discussions within the chat about the precise operational details Goldberg alluded to in his article. Ratcliffe also insisted the CIA employee he named in the chat was not an undercover agent.
“So the intimation that there was something inappropriate was clearly incorrect,” the CIA director testified.
While Goldberg’s reporting suggests Waltz was responsible for the leak episode, President Donald Trump has publicly indicated he stands by his national security adviser.
“I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael. He’s a good person,” Trump said at a March 25 White House event.
—Ryan Morgan
BOOKMARKS
Donald Trump has pardoned former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer, saying “he was treated very unfairly.” Archer had been previously convicted of fraud and had his charges dismissed, but that dismissal was overturned on appeal.
Freshman Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) tempered his character hunting bears and tracking bighorn sheep before his ascension to Congress. He shared some of those experiences with The Epoch Times’ Jackson Richman.
Nevada’s Secretary of State’s office is looking into reports of hundreds of residents attempting to vote twice in the 2024 election. Officials said this may occur by mistake sometimes, giving the (possibly) hypothetical example of a father sending in a mail-in ballot of his son with the same name.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says corruption is an “endemic feature” in communist China. According to a March 20 report, some officials had their earnings increased by “four to six times” through bribery.
Frank Bisignano, Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security administration, told the Senate Finance Committee that he has never thought about privatizing that government program. “It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about, and I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run for the benefit of the American public,” he said during his confirmation hearing.
—Stacy Robinson
