On a spring morning two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.

Leaving the city, the convoy — manned by British commandos, out of uniform but heavily armed — traveled 400 miles west to the Polish border. The crossing was seamless, on diplomatic passports. Farther on, they came to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where an idling C-130 cargo plane waited.

There was "anger," "surprise," and "panic" among the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden after Ukraine sunk the Mosvka, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a report published by the New York Times on March 29 suggests.

The Moskva sank on April 14, 2022, after being struck by two Ukrainian R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles. The attack marked one of Kyiv’s most significant early victories in the full-scale war and dealt a major blow to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

It is years too late and alternative and independent media had already done so much work on exposing the reality, including 600+ page books which have been published, but the New York Times on Sunday is out with a lengthy report on The Partnership: The Secret History of America’s Role in the Ukraine War.

The war in Ukraine is at an inflection point, with President Trump seeking rapprochement with the Russian leader, Vladimir V. Putin, and pressing for an end to the fighting.

But for nearly three years before Mr. Trump’s return to power, the United States and Ukraine were joined in an extraordinary partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology whose evolution and inner workings have been known only to a small circle of American and allied officials.

Russian forces have continued rolling up villages in the east and south of Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday. A full battlefield press has continued even amid President Trump's efforts to get all sides at the negotiating table.

First, on Saturday Russia's defense ministry announced the capture of the two villages of Shchebraki in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Panteleimonivka in the eastern Donetsk region.

An agreement to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and ban strikes on energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine was brokered by the Trump administration after holding separate bilateral talks with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Riyadh.

The United States said on Tuesday it has made separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban strikes against energy facilities in the two countries.

The White House said in a statement that Washington would help restore Russia's access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports and would continue facilitating talks on both sides in a bid toward achieving a sustainable peace.

The White House said Tuesday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to cease fighting in the Black Sea and to hash out the details for halting strikes on energy facilities. It would be the first significant step toward the full cease-fire the Trump Administration had been pushing, but it still would fall short of that goal and it remains unclear how and when this limited truce would be implemented.

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it has secured separate deals with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in the two countries.

The White House said that under the agreement, Moscow and Kyiv “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.” 

Washington and Moscow are seeking to revive the Black Sea Grain deal, which had held for much of 2022, allowing Ukraine to ship its grain and agricultural products to global markets.

The White House on Tuesday published two readouts from successive days of talks in Riyadh with Russian and Ukrainian delegations, which feature a ceasefire at sea "to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea."