Black Sea grain initiative monitor resumes operational updates

The body that oversees the initiative to allow ships to safely export grain stopped sending updates after Russia took issue with information in a grain deal update from the UN.

The new updates have been amended to include information on fertiliser exports, but omit other details.

THE Joint Co-ordination Centre, which facilitates implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative allowing ships to safely export grain, other foodstuffs and fertilisers, including ammonia, from Ukraine, has resumed operational updates.

The JCC had been issuing almost daily operational updates until February 1, shortly after Moscow responded to a statement published by the United Nations Secretary-General about the Black Sea Grain Initiative saying the information “distorts the facts”.

The UN statement included information about the exports to date, details on daily inspections, and referenced the need for the facilitation of fertiliser exports.

The JCC resumed its updates on February 24 with a revised format.

Reference is no longer made to the number of inspections completed each day, nor the number planned for the following day.

Information on the daily number of completed inspections is still readily available on the initiative’s website.  

Ukrainian government officials have repeatedly accused Russian representatives of deliberately delaying and slowing inspections of vessels participating in the deal.

The disclosure: “Destinations indicated are based on information received at the JCC and may change based on commercial activity. Grains that reach a destination may go through processing and be transhipped to other countries,” has been removed.

Moscow has accused the UN of changing the narrative of the Black Sea Initiative from a humanitarian to commercial deal.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative was always a commercial agreement that is dictated by commercial trade.

The sentence: “No fertiliser, including ammonia, has been exported under the initiative,” has also been included.

Moscow’s press release highlights Russia’s struggle to export fertilisers, which it blames on the UN and Ukraine.

It claims that exports from Yuzhnyi via the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline, which pre-invasion carried Russian ammonia, should have restarted when the Black Sea Grain Initiative was implemented.

There is no specific reference to the pipeline in the memorandum of understanding signed by the UN and Russia on the facilitation of Russian food and fertiliser.

Russia reportedly tried to negotiate the resumption of ammonia exports from Yuzhnyi during the period before the grain deal’s first renewal in mid-November. The outcome of these negotiations has not been made public, but when the deal was extended, it was under the original conditions.

The spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said earlier this month that it is a “constant effort” to implement the Black Sea Grain Initiative, including the unimpeded trade of fertiliser.

According to the UN, there is a ship laden with Russian fertiliser stuck in a Latvian port.

The JCC has previously made changes to the format of the operational updates, clarifying information as well as adding new data points.