Lavrov declared an impasse in the Black Sea grain initiative

Russia appreciates the efforts of the UN to implement the grain deal, but the situation regarding the export of food and fertilizer from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine is at an impasse. This was announced at a press conference in New York by the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov.

According to the minister, UN Secretary General António Guterres is trying to reach an agreement with the countries that have announced unilateral sanctions against Russia, but there are no results. In particular, Rosselkhozbank, according to Lavrov, is still disconnected from SWIFT.

According to the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guterres approached three American banks with a request to replace SWIFT and help Rosselkhozbank service Russian export transactions. A few months later, only one American bank agreed to finance one operation. “The West does not want to allow our grain and fertilizers to enter the market,” says Lavrov.

Lavrov confirmed that on Monday, April 24, Guterres delivered a letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the UN, the document proposes ways to expand and extend the grain deal, taking into account the positions expressed by the parties. Lavrov called Guterres’ letter to Putin a “personal correspondence” and expressed the hope that it would not leak into open access.

Guterres sent similar letters to the other participants in the grain deal – Ukraine and Turkey, under the mediation of which Kyiv and Moscow concluded an agreement on the export of products and fertilizers across the Black Sea in July of last year.

The mass media previously repeatedly wrote that Russia is exporting grain from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of its own. In particular, the other day The Wall Street Journal wrote that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office asked Turkey to detain the dry cargo, interrogate the captain and crew, and also take food samples. According to the agency, the vessel is transporting stolen barley loaded in October last year in the Kerch Strait.

Turkish authorities did not respond to The Wall Street Journal’s requests, but the newspaper’s diplomatic sources said that in recent months, Ankara has secretly taken measures to stop purchases of exported Ukrainian grain. The reason for such measures was Ukraine’s public request to Turkey to detain a second ship, presumably with stolen grain. The incident happened last summer.

The agreement, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was concluded separately by Russia and Ukraine with the UN and Turkey in Istanbul last July and has been extended twice since then.

Until July of last year, after the February attack of Russia on the neighboring country, the ports of Ukraine were completely blocked. The UN and many countries declared that the blockade of food exports from the country could lead to global consequences, up to famine in the poorest countries.

In March of this year, the deal was extended. The UN has not officially announced how long the agreement was extended. Ukraine announced a 120-day extension, the same period as the first extension in the fall. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia stated that Moscow notified all participants of the agreement about the extension of the agreement for only 60 days.