The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that the grain agreement could fail. Grain exports from Russia and Ukraine must begin simultaneously, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko demanded on Wednesday, according to the Interfax agency.
Therefore, the obstacles to the export of Russian grain must be removed quickly. A center for coordinating grain exports was due to open in Istanbul on Wednesday. It is part of the agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports. In the agreement, Russia had pledged, for example, to let ships sail along a sea corridor and not to attack them or the ports involved.
“We always hope for the best and count on our partners to implement the two components of the grain deal, which concerns the export of grain from Ukraine and the lifting of restrictions on Russian grain exports altogether,” Rudenko said. In the past, Russia has explicitly made an end to the blockade of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports dependent on the easing of Western sanctions against itself.
Although the sanctions are not directed against the export of food and fertilizer from Russia, they have become so effective that they also hinder their export. Moscow complains that Russian ships that transport grain can no longer dock in European ports or be insured. There are also problems with the financing of such transports due to the restrictions in the financial sector.
Bild: Keystone