Black Sea grain deal elusive despite resumption of ship inspections
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Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s key agricultural producers, and major players in the wheat, barley and maize markets.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - 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) 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 and to support Ukraine, whose economy relies heavily on agricultural exports.
Russia, without offering documentary evidence, on Wednesday accused Ukraine of sabotaging the Black Sea grain deal
There was no immediate comment on the allegation, levelled by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, from Ukraine, which has blamed Moscow for problems with the agreement.
Russia and Ukraine both say the deal is in danger of collapsing, just as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have imposed import bans on Ukrainian grain.
Russia has repeatedly warned it will not renew the deal beyond May 18 unless the West agrees to lift a host of restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance which it says are hindering its own agricultural exports.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, which oversees the deal, was experiencing difficulties with the registration of new vessels and inspections.
She accused Ukraine of “trying to exploit the Black Sea initiative as much as possible, not refraining from abuses of the rules of procedure or demands for bribes from shipowners... for the sake of maximising commercial profits”.
Shipowners who refused to pay a bribe to Ukrainians were forced to wait for more than a month while they waited for registration, she said. And Russian proposals to add vessels carrying grain to African countries had been “met with hostility” by Ukrainian representatives, she added.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s key agricultural producers, and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil markets. Russia is also dominant in the fertiliser market.
Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine which it launched on Feb 24, last year, something Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
Russia’s food and fertiliser exports are not sanctioned. But Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance amount to a barrier to shipments, which it wants lifted. REUTERS
