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MOSCOW, 17 May. Russia will not extend the grain deal after July 17 if all problematic issues are not resolved, the Foreign Ministry said.
They stressed that the agreement was extended without any changes. This happened primarily due to appeals from Turkey. At the same time, the department pointed to five systemic tasks that need to be solved in the implementation of the Russia-UN memorandum. We are talking about reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, supplying spare parts, unblocking transport logistics and insurance, reanimating the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and unfreezing the assets of Russian companies. As the Foreign Ministry noted, there is no progress on these issues at the moment.
“Unless these requirements are met, there is no question of any expansion of the Black Sea Initiative, and the agreement itself will be terminated after July 17,” the ministry said. .
The day before, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the extension of the «Black Sea Grain Initiative» for two months. Later, this information was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Kremlin.
The agreement, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, involves the export of Ukrainian grain, food and fertilizer across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The joint coordinating center in Istanbul is in charge of coordinating the movement of ships.
The Grain Initiative is an integral part of the package agreement. The second part, the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years, provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers, reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services, restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and some other measures. As noted in Moscow, this part of the package agreement has not yet been implemented.
In turn, Vladimir Putin pointed out that the West exports most of the Ukrainian grain to itself, and not to the needy African countries.