Russia makes stand clear on grain deal

MOSCOW/KYIV — The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia's stance on the Black Sea grain deal — that its own interests must be taken into account in talks aimed at extending it beyond May 18 — was understood by all relevant parties.

"Work is underway. Our position is well known … and consistent," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"So, let's wait for the outcome of the negotiations."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday he thought the Black Sea grain deal could be extended for at least two more months. Cavusoglu was speaking to reporters on his return from a trip to Moscow.

He said the grain deal was among the issues he discussed with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during the visit and that he hoped a positive result could be achieved in Istanbul, where talks were set to continue on Thursday.

"I think we can get a result to extend it for at least two more months," Cavusoglu said.

Officials from the parties involved held the first day of talks on Thursday on an extension in Istanbul.

The United Nations and Turkiye brokered the Black Sea export agreement in July to help tackle a global food crisis that has been worsened by the Ukraine conflict.

A three-year pact was also struck in July in which the UN agreed to help Moscow facilitate its own agricultural exports, something it complains hasn't happened at scale.

Both Ukraine and Russia say the Black Sea grain deal, which allowed Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea, is in danger of collapsing, Reuters reported.

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 fertilizer market.

Barrier to shipments

Russia has said curbs on payments, logistics and insurance are a significant barrier to shipments.

Ukraine's foodstuff export through the Black Sea ports last week hit its lowest level since August due to the disruptions of the work of the "grain corridor," data from an industry body showed on Tuesday.

Between May 1 and 7, Ukraine's ports shipped 404,000 tons of agricultural products, down 10 percent from the previous week, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club said in a report.

Since the "grain corridor" started its work on Aug 1 last year, Ukraine had exported some 29.7 million tons of foodstuffs via its seaports, according to the report.

Meanwhile, some 118,000 people have been evacuated from conflict-affected regions in Ukraine since August 2022, the government press service said in a statement on Wednesday.

In particular, about 70,000 people have moved from the eastern Donetsk region to safer areas within the country under the mandatory evacuation. Among them are some 8,000 children and more than 3,000 people with reduced mobility.

Besides, about 25,000 people have been evacuated from the eastern Kharkiv region and 23,000 others left the southern Kherson region.

Last month, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that an estimated 7 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and about 4.8 million of them were officially registered within government agencies as internally displaced persons.

Agencies - Xinhua