There was outcry on Monday over Russia’s decision to end its participation in a deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain by sea, an operation that helped to ensure price stability of vital global commodities like wheat.
The year-old agreement was “a lifeline for global food security and a beacon of hope in a troubled world,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in New York.
“Ultimately, participation in these agreements is a choice,” Guterres said.
“But struggling people everywhere and developing countries don’t have a choice. Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis.”
Guterres said he was “deeply disappointed” that a letter he sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week with proposals to save the agreement went unheeded.
The United Nations and Turkey-brokered agreement allowing grain exports from Ukraine, despite a Russian naval blockade, was due to expire at the end of Monday after several extensions since it was first signed last July.
Millions of tons of grain and other foods were freed up to leave Ukraine’s ports and enter the global market.
But for months, the Kremlin indicated that it wasn’t satisfied with the way the pact was being implemented and threatened to withdraw.
On Monday morning, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was suspending its participation and would only return once conditions relating to Russian produce are met.
Moscow says it wants obstacles to exports of Russia’s own food and fertilizer lifted in exchange for further cooperation. The Kremlin, in particular, is seeking relief from Western sanctions on payments, logistics, and shipping insurance.
The United States and European countries have dismissed Moscow’s complaints as without merit, saying their sanctions do not target Russian grain and fertilizers.
“I have to blame Russia for this decision,” the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said, describing the move as “completely unjustified.”
The EU foreign policy chief rejected Russian claims that sanctions prevent agricultural exports as “complete nonsense.”
“While Russia plays political games, real people will suffer,” criticized the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s biggest grain exporters to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, which began with its all-out invasion in February 2022, pushed up grain prices around the world.
The deal was struck to help secure supply for countries that rely on grain from the war-torn region.
On Sunday, possibly one of the last ships cleared for travel under the Black Sea deal set off from the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine.
According to the United Nations, it was loaded with more than 15,000 tons of rapeseed.
Speaking from New York, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Putin “to refrain from once again using hunger as a weapon in this brutal war of aggression … for the sake of peace in the world.”
Putin’s actions make it clear that the Russian president “has no regard for the most vulnerable around the world,” Baerbock said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was instrumental in forging the deal, said he thinks Putin still intends to return to it.
“I believe Russian President Putin wants continuation of this humanitarian bridge, despite today’s statement,” Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul.
Erdoğan said he would hold talks with his Russian counterpart ahead of Putin’s anticipated visit to Turkey in August.
An agreement to extend the grain deal “without interruptions” could still be possible before Putin’s visit in August, Erdoğan said, adding that negotiations were underway.
Ukraine meanwhile said that it was possible to go it alone, despite the lack of security guarantees from Russia.
“Even without Russia, everything must be done so that we can use this Black Sea corridor,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told African journalists on Monday, according to a statement by his spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov on Facebook.
According to Zelensky, ship owners are ready to call at Ukrainian ports for grain deliveries. The international agreement between Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN is still in force without Moscow, he argued.
Source: DPA
