Russia and Ukraine extend wartime grain deal to aid world’s poor in Asia, Middle East and Africa
- The United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the extension on Saturday, but neither confirmed how long it would last
- The United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine had pushed for 120 days, while Russia said it was willing to agree to 60 days
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov tweeted on Saturday that the deal would remain in effect for the longer, four-month period. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian news agency Tass that Moscow “agreed to extend the deal for 60 days.”
“Any claim that it’s prolonged for more than 60 days is either wishful thinking or deliberate manipulation,” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said.
Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other affordable food products that developing nations depend on. Two ships carrying more than 96,000 metric tons of corn left Ukrainian ports on Saturday bound for China and Tunisia, according to UN data.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement that 25 million metric tonnes (about 28 millions tons) of grain and foodstuffs had moved to 45 countries under the initiative, helping to bring down global food prices and stabilising markets.
“We remain strongly committed to both agreements and we urge all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully,” Dujarric said.
Russia ships more grain from Ukraine amid export accord confusion
The crisis left an estimated 345 million people facing food insecurity, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.
That has helped lead to backlogs in vessels waiting in the waters of Turkey and a recent drop in the amount of grain getting out of Ukraine.
Ukrainian and some US officials have blamed Russia for the slowdowns, which the country denies.
While fertilisers have been stuck, Russia has exported huge amounts of wheat after a record crop. Figures from financial data provider Refinitiv showed that Russian wheat exports more than doubled to 3.8 million tons in January from the same month a year ago, before the invasion.
Russian wheat shipments were at or near record highs in November, December and January, increasing 24 per cent over the same three months a year earlier, according to Refinitiv. It estimated Russia would export 44 million tons of wheat in 2022-2023.