The Riyadh talks have been, on the surface, a success.The White House says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to ensure safe passage for commercial shipping in the Black Sea and stop military strikes.
Washington released separate statements after American officials met representatives from both countries in Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine agreed to stop military force in the Black Sea, but says any movement of Russian naval vessels would be a violation of the agreement.
"It is too early to say that it will work, but these were the right meetings, the right decisions," says President Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Russia says certain sanctions on banks, insurers, and food exporters must be lifted before the ceasefire comes into force.
Deal is a step in the right direction - Zelensky
More from Zelensky now, who says the deal to halt strikes in the Black Sea is a step in the right direction.
"It is too early to say that it will work, but these were the right meetings, the right decisions, the right steps," he has told reporters in Kyiv.
"No one can accuse Ukraine of not moving towards sustainable peace after this."
US President Trump has previously accused Zelensky of standing in the way of peace negotiations.
"This guy doesn't want there to be Peace as long as he has America's backing," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, just days after his dramatic showdown with Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Russia remains major security threat, US intelligence chief says
Just before the Black Sea agreement was announced, we heard from Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence.
In a briefing before the Senate intelligence committee, she said Russia remained a major security threat, particularly because of its cyber attack capabilities and its vast nuclear arsenal.
"Among Russia's most concerning developments is a new satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon," she has told the committee.
So many ways this could still unwind
The Riyadh talks have been, on the surface, a success. The goals were far less ambitious than the proposal to emerge from the earlier Jeddah talks, namely a full 30-day ceasefire on land, sea and air.
But even getting this limited maritime agreement in principle from both warring parties is a start. But there is so little trust between Russia and Ukraine that there is a temptation by both sides to keep shooting at each other even after a deal is agreed.
It is all too easy to see a scenario in which this agreement falls apart: Ukraine could accuse the Russian navy of moving westwards in violation of the deal, Moscow denies it.
Ukraine says it has no choice but to fire on the Russians in self-defence, Russia resumes targeting Ukrainian ships and then the deal is dead in the water.
Then there is the risk of one side accusing the other of carrying out a "false flag attack" - pretending it has been attacked by the other when in reality it staged the attack itself to discredit the other nation.
That said, Russia is clearly keen to restart its commercial exports through the Black Sea and Ukraine would certainly like to ship out its grain from ports like Odessa without being hit by Russian missiles.
So despite the risks, this could, just possibly, be something to build on towards a more wide-ranging ceasefire.
