Russia: Russia has decided to end its participation in Black Sea grain export deals. 25 percent of the world’s grain production takes place in Russia and Ukraine. If Russia withdraws from the agreement. Then there will be a major food crisis all over the world, especially in Africa and the Gulf countries. The official TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying that the Black Sea agreement was no longer in force. The Russian President gave his deadline as July 17. On July 17, Russia decided to end its participation in this export deal.
In this regard, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that this step was taken due to the non-fulfillment of the relevant parts of the agreement with Moscow. The spokesman also clarified that the end of the deal had nothing to do with Monday’s blast of the Crimean bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the occupied Crimean peninsula. “Russia’s position on the suspension of participation in the grain deal was announced before today’s terrorist act on the Crimean bridge, and this attack does not affect Moscow’s decision at all,” Peskov said. These events are completely unrelated to each other. Russian President Vladimir Putin had stated Russia’s position on the grain deal before the terrorist attack.
Both Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, vegetable oil and other food products on which several countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia depend. Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries separately signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Turkey and the United Nations in Istanbul in July 2022, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from Black Sea ports. The initiative was initially effective for 120 days. In mid-November 2022, it was extended for 120 days till March 18, 2023. At the time, Russia only agreed to extend the deal for 60 days.
Russia agreed on May 17 to extend the agreement for another 60 days. As a parallel agreement, Russia and the United Nations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Facilitating Russian Food and Fertilizer Exports. However, little progress was made on this part of the deal. That led to discontent in Russia and the end was finally announced on Monday.