Grain shipments from Ukraine will resume on Wednesday after Russia agreed to join a UN-backed initiative to allow exports across the Black Sea, ending a standoff that threatened to reignite a food crisis worldwide
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, had called his Turkish counterpart to tell him Moscow was back on board.
Addressing his security council on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would continue to supply “the volume of grain that was supplied from Ukraine to the poorest countries” even if the latest agreement sunk Many countries in the Middle East and Africa have been supportive of Moscow’s arguments that sanctions — rather than the invasion of its neighbor Ukraine — are the main obstacle to grain exports.
The next grain shipments will go to Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan, Erdogan said. The Turkish leader, who has maintained close ties with Putin since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February, helped negotiate the original grain deal in July.
Russia left the pact on Saturday, accusing Kyiv of targeting its naval fleet in the Black Sea after claims of a Ukrainian drone attack on its warships. Moscow’s withdrawal threatened a rare example of wartime cooperation that has allowed more than 9 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products to reach international markets, helping prevent a global food crisis.
Putin said Russia “would not hinder the supply of grain from Ukraine to Turkey at any time in the future,” citing Turkey’s neutral stance on the war and Erdogan’s efforts to represent the “poorest countries.”
He said Ukraine had given Russia guarantees not to use grain export routes for “military means”, but said Moscow “reserved the right to withdraw from the agreement if these guarantees are violated”.
Serhiy Kuzan, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry, said Kyiv “did not give new guarantees in addition to those included in the original agreement,” adding that “we have not used and will not use this shipping corridor of cereals for military purposes”.
Kyiv has complained that Russia continues to use its Black Sea fleet to launch air strikes on Ukraine, including a series of crippling attacks on energy infrastructure in recent weeks, and has repeatedly denied using the grain corridor to carry out their own attacks.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, told the Financial Times that Russia’s attempts at “blackmail and ultimatums” had failed after Kyiv, the UN and Turkey demonstrated “that the grain corridor can continue functioning even without the Kremlin’s involvement.” Ships carrying grain continued to leave Ukrainian ports on Monday and Tuesday.
Amir Abdulla, the UN coordinator for the grains deal, said in a post on Twitter that he was “grateful for the Turkish facilitation” and welcomed Russia’s return to the deal.
After Turkey’s announcement, wheat futures fell 6.4% to $8.45 a bushel, while corn fell 2.4% to $6.81 a bushel. Consortium insurers Lloyd’s of London said they had restarted offering quotes to cover ships under the grain deal.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said earlier on Wednesday that Russia had made “security demands” after the weekend attack, but gave no further details.
Çavuşoğlu told a panel that Moscow also wanted to export more of its own agricultural products that were part of the deal. “Fertilizers and Russian grains are not on the sanctions list, but the ships that will transport them are not allowed to dock. [insurance] no payments are made. Ships from many countries hesitate to carry these cargoes,” he said.
The original grain deal was negotiated in July by the UN and Ankara to end Russia’s blockade of grain, food and fertilizer exports through Ukrainian ports after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of his neighbor in February.
Ukraine is also trying to lift Russia’s embargo on other commodities, including steel, another source of hard currency for Kyiv.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cereals and other agricultural products. Food security experts have warned that war-induced shortages will have serious consequences for poor countries already facing a crisis caused by the impact of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Additional reporting by Emiko Terazono in London