New Black Sea grain deal remains elusive despite resumption of ship inspections
Global News
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to discuss the grain export deal with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York next week.
Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea resumed on Wednesday under a UN-brokered deal, but Kyiv said more time was needed to secure an extension of the initiative.
Ukraine, which depends heavily on revenue from grain sales as it battles Russia’s invasion, and its allies blamed the latest halt to ship inspections in the Bosphorus on Moscow, which in turn has blamed Ukraine and the United Nations.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on Facebook that “ship inspections are being resumed, despite the RF’s (Russian Federation’s) attempts to disrupt the agreement.”
The Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul that oversees operations said “inspections are already at work.”
Talks on extending the Black Sea grain deal beyond a May 18 deadline have not produced a breakthrough, and Kyiv’s grain exports are also restricted by import bans imposed by three eastern European countries.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, reached with UN and Turkish mediation last July, unblocked three Ukrainian Black Sea ports five months after Russia’s invasion.
It was designed to alleviate a global food crisis as well as to support Ukraine whose economy relies heavily on agricultural exports.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, without offering documentary evidence, accused Kyiv of sabotaging the deal by demanding bribes from ship owners to register vessels and carry out inspections. Kyiv did not immediately comment on the allegation.
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