A deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was renewed on Saturday for at least 60 days – half the intended period – after Russia warned that any further extension beyond mid-May would depend on removing some Western sanctions.
The pact was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Türkiye in July and renewed for an additional 120 days in November.
The aim was to combat a global food crisis fueled partly by Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and the Black Sea blockade.
The deal had been set to expire on Saturday.
On Saturday, the U.N. and Türkiye said that the deal had been extended but did not specify for how long.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Saturday that they had extended the duration of the Grain Corridor Agreement.
"At the end of our negotiations with both parties, we provided the extension of the agreement period," he said.
Drawing attention to the importance of the agreement in terms of the stability of food supply, the president stated that 25 million tons of grain had been shipped by more than 800 ships to date.
Ukraine said it had been extended for 120 days. But Russia’s cooperation is needed, and Moscow only agreed to renew the pact for 60 days.
"The Black Sea Grain Initiative, alongside the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets, are critical for global food security, especially for developing countries," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Russia and Ukraine are vital global suppliers of food commodities, and Russia is also a top exporter of fertilizer.
Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said Ukraine had supplied nearly 500,000 tons of wheat for U.N. aid programs and insisted on Saturday that the Black Sea export pact had been extended for 120 days and was an opportunity to keep helping those in need and "save the world from hunger."
To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a three-year deal was also struck in July in which the U.N. agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.
Demands
Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. While its food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned, Moscow says shipment barriers are restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance industries.
On Friday, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the European Union, the United States and Britain now "have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations that accompany the Russian agricultural sector" if they want the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal to continue.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded that Washington had "gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carve-outs for food and fertilizers to governments and the private sector."
In a letter to U.N. officials dated March 16 and posted on Twitter by a Russian diplomat on Saturday, Nebenzia spelled out what Moscow wanted to be resolved – allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank to return to the SWIFT banking system and allowing the supply to Russia of agricultural machinery and spare parts.
Nebenzia also said restrictions need to be lifted on insurance and access to ports for Russian ships and cargo, a pipeline that delivers Russian ammonia to a Ukrainian Black Sea port needs to be restarted, and the accounts and financial activities of Russian fertilizer companies should be unblocked.
The U.N. has said that while progress has been made in facilitating Russian agricultural exports, there were still impediments, particularly regarding payment systems.
Dujarric said that the U.N. was firmly committed to implementing the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal and the pact with Moscow, urging "all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully."
Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tons of mainly corn and wheat under the deal, according to the U.N. The top primary destinations for shipments have been China, Italy, Spain, Türkiye and the Netherlands.