Russia terminates Ukraine grain deal

RUSSIA has pulled the plug on the United Nations-led Black Sea corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain after almost a year of operations allmarinenews uniforms. 

Russia officially terminated the initiative earlier today via a notification sent to the grain initiative’s Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, a UN source confirmed. 

The move effectively means that Russia has withdrawn any guarantees for the safety of navigation.

“Without the participation of Russia, the Black Sea initiative ceases to function from July 18,” according to a statement by the Russian foreign ministry. “Only upon receipt of concrete results, and not promises and assurances, Russia will be ready to consider restoring the deal”. 

The grain deal - dubbed the Black Sea Grain Initiative - allowed Ukrainian food to be exported along with Russian ammonia. However, no ammonia has been exported and a blast earlier this year on the pipeline that runs to Ukraine is still out of action. 

At the same time, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Russia and the UN to enable the normalisation of Russian exports of agricultural products and fertilisers,

But Russia has called the results of these agreements “disappointing” even as its wheat exports reach records making it the largest supplier in the world.

The last ship carrying grain out of war-torn Ukraine under the Black Sea Grain Initiative was due to arrive in Türkiye later today.

The 1996-built 43,775 dwt Türkiye-flagged bulk carrier TQ Samsun (IMO: 9125566) was at Odesa port since June 30 and sailed on July 16 for Istanbul anchorage, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel-tracking data.

The deal brokered by the UN and Türkiye in July last year was seen as a breakthrough, helping to alleviate rising food prices and staving off widespread hunger.

More than 30m tonnes of grains have been shipped through the safe corridor, with three extensions, since it became operational on August 1. 

However, Russia has made repeated threats to pull out of the agreement, citing grievances relating to its agricultural commodity exports, including ammonia, which is pumped through a pipeline to Ukraine for shipment. The deal has to be agreed by all sides.  

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a last-ditch attempt last week to persuade the Kremlin to keep the deal going on humanitarian grounds, but Russia has said that the shipments have mostly headed to high-income countries rather than to where it is needed most.

The foreign ministry said on Monday that contrary to the declared humanitarian goals of the deal, the export of Ukrainian food was “almost immediately transferred to a purely commercial basis and until the last moment was directed to serving the selfish interests of Kiev and its Western curators”.

According to the Joint Co-Ordination Centre, set up by the UN in Istanbul to oversee the corridor, a total of 32.8m tonnes of grain and foodstuffs have been exported from the three designated Ukrainian ports — Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhnyi.

Ships made 1,003 voyages from the ports, including 35 that had been stranded since February 2022 when the war broke out.  

The JCC has received 29 applications from vessels located in Turkish waters, but no new ships have been approved to participate since June 27, it said.  

As of this month, less than one ship inspection per day has been completed, with the average time for a completed inspection lengthening to four hours and 12 minutes (11 inspections) from two hours and 12 minutes in February (149 inspections).