Russia will decide by Nov. 18 whether to extend the timeline of a grain-shipment deal in accordance with the existing data, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.
Maria Zakharova cited that part of the agreement related to the shipment of Russian grain and fertilizers has not been implemented.
"We can't see the results in this regard. This is a fact. This situation is not suitable for us," she said at a news conference in Moscow. "We have expressed this at all levels. The agreement was made in the form of a package, and all parts need to be implemented."
"Here we are talking about Russian food and fertilizers, which we will be happy to supply to the countries that need it under the agreement," she said.
"Accounts in certain banks are blocked and therefore payments cannot be paid. This happened because of the sanctions of the West," she said. "If we had been paid, we could have shipped the products. However, this is not happening."
Türkiye, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in July in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The 120-day Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-led deal agreed with Moscow and Kyiv, runs until Nov. 19. The shipments were initially paused after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, said Thursday Russia would face "great anger" if it backs out of the agreement that allows grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.
During a visit to Ottawa Blinken said, "The idea that Russia would now say it doesn't want to continue it, it wants to turn it off, I think, will be met with great anger by countries around the world who are benefiting from Ukrainian grain" especially developing nations in the southern hemisphere.
"I think it's profoundly in everyone's interest to make sure that this grain can continue to move out of Ukraine and certainly, we will do everything we can to sustain the agreement," he said.
Blinken noted that two thirds of the shipments have gone to countries that "desperately needed it."
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said Wednesday he was relatively optimistic that the grain deal would be extended.
The United States strongly supports the efforts of United Nations to ensure the Black Sea grain deal is renewed, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday, saying that would help bring food prices down.
Speaking to reporters in a call, Kirby said any talk by Russia on disrupting the deal was "essentially another method of weaponizing a commodity."
Moscow on Friday also said that only 3% of food exported under the deal has gone to the poorest countries, and that Western countries account for half of all shipments.
"The geography of the recipients of these cargoes has turned out to be completely inconsistent with the initially declared humanitarian objectives," it said in a statement.
"Needy states such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, (and) Afghanistan have received just 3% of food, mostly from the World Food Programme," it said.
Since Russia and Ukraine signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Türkiye, several millions of tons of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soya have been exported from Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials have since complained that there are serious problems with the deal, raising fears Moscow could pull out altogether unless its demands are met.
Any supplies to global markets from Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, ease the food crisis, according to Western officials briefed on the grain talks.
