Russia supports the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, but only for 60 days. Kiev's reaction
Russia says it has agreed to extend an agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports to pass through the blockaded Black Sea, but only for another 60 days, Politico reports. The statement prompted an immediate reaction from Kiev.
The agreement, initially brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, was extended once in November for 120 days and automatically extends on 18 March if there is no intermediary.
Some 24 million tonnes of Ukrainian products have so far been shipped under the Black Sea Grain Initiative amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's all-out war on Ukraine.
Russia "is not opposing the next extension of the 'Black Sea Initiative' after the expiry of the second mandate on 18 March, but only for 60 days," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vishinin said in a statement issued by the Russian mission in Geneva after talks with UN officials.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksander Kubrakov replied on Twitter, however, that the original agreement in the Black Sea grain deal provides for a 120-day extension - not the 60 days agreed by Moscow.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski called for the extension at a meeting in Kiev last week, stressing the importance of the initiative for lowering global food prices and combating food insecurity.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was a "critical moment" in the talks to extend the initiative, which he described as a "critical tool", Reuters reported.
Under a second agreement reached with Moscow in July 2022, the UN agreed to help facilitate Russian food and fertiliser exports for three years. The Kremlin has claimed that this part of the negotiations has not been met, arguing that Western sanctions targeting fertiliser oligarchs and Russia's main agricultural bank have hampered its own fertiliser and food exports.
The last time the deal was renewed, in November, Russia threatened to pull out if the sanctions were not lifted, but eventually agreed to an extension.
