Many 'will pay the price' of Russia's withdrawal from Black Sea grain deal, UN says

wheat grain tractor
Russian wheat harvesters. (Photo: Twitter)
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, expressed in a statement that he “deeply regrets” the Russian Federation’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, saying that hundreds of millions of people facing the global cost-of-living crisis “will pay the price”.اضافة اعلان

The statement added that the Black Sea Initiative, together with the Memorandum of Understanding on facilitating exports of Russian food products and fertilizers, have been essential for global food security. The grain deal has ensured the safe passage of over 32m metric tons of food commodities from Ukrainian ports.

These agreements have helped to reduce food prices by over 23 percent since March last year.

A new proposal
Guterres said he sent a letter to Putin with a new proposal to keep the Black Sea Initiative “alive”.

Under the agreement, a coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN staff monitored the loading of grain into vessels in Ukrainian ports before navigating a preplanned route through the Black Sea, which is heavily mined by Ukrainian and Russian forces.

Putin said last week that he wanted an end to sanctions on the Russian Agricultural Bank. Other demands include the resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery and parts, lifting restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, the resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, and the unblocking of assets and the accounts of Russian companies involved in food and fertilizer exports.


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