The entire chain of operations for agricultural exports of the Russian Federation must be withdrawn from Western sanctions within 60 days. According to TASS, this was expressed by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Vasily Nebenzya at the UN Security Council meeting.
“Further steps will depend on progress in solving the problems we have identified. If Washington, Brussels and London are really interested in continuing food exports from Ukraine via the sea corridor in their own interests, then they have two months,” he said.
He added that otherwise, it is not clear to Russia how the “package concept” of the UN Secretary-General will work within the framework of the Istanbul agreements.
According to the diplomat, the Russian side formally informed Turkey and Ukraine, noting that it did not object to the extension of the grain agreement for 60 days after 18 March, that is, until 18 May.
Nebenzya also said Moscow “has a main question – why the grain deal has changed from a humanitarian to a commercial enterprise”.
“The impact on food prices around the world is highly controversial. And the poorest countries did not get 66% or 65% of the supply, as they say here in this room today, but only about 3%,” he said.
According to Nebenzi, Western states “openly rejected” the agreement between the Russian Federation and the UN Secretariat, “avoiding even mentioning it in Security Council products.” He noted that this agreement – the obligations of the world organization to lift restrictions on the export of Russian fertilizers and agricultural products to world markets – were “not fulfilled in the slightest.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said at a Security Council meeting that the world organization continues to work to resolve the issue with Russian payment systems as part of a grain deal.
“We have made significant progress. However, obstacles remain, particularly with regard to payment systems,” said Griffiths. According to him, “some work” still needs to be done, and the UN’s “efforts in this direction are continuing.”
Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Serhiy Kislytsya, also said that Kiev has offered to expand the grain agreement to include ports in the Mykolaiv region, making the agreement indefinite “or extending it by 120 days, as stipulated by the terms.”
On 17 March, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the international organization hopes the grain agreement will continue beyond its expiration date, which expired on 18 March.
“We really hope that the enterprise will continue to work, that the ships will continue to move. I’ll stop here for now,” Dujarric said. While emphasizing that the UN will work to maintain and implement the agreement, the representative of the UN Secretary-General did not answer the question whether this meant extending the grain agreement by 60 days.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on the eve of negotiations with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that Turkey is also in favor of extending the new period of the agreement.
“We hope this will be possible not just for 60 days, but for a longer period of time. Mr. President said he is working on it,” Niiniste said.
Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin recalled that the grain agreement includes permission from Russia to export ammonia via Ukraine. “Remember that they [Стамбульские соглашения, зерновая сделка] “The Black Sea Initiative” on the export of raw materials for fertilizers, including Ukrainian food and ammonia, and the Russia-UN Memorandum of Understanding on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports,” Vershinin said.
According to him, the further position of the Russian Federation will depend on the “real progress in the supply of Russian products”, including payments, logistics, insurance, resolving the financial activities of the Russian Federation and resolving problems with supply. Ammonia via the Togliatti-Odessa pipeline. Private companies and the state budget lose billions of dollars due to the inability to sell raw materials.
The launch of the ammonia pipeline remains a stumbling block in the grain deal. As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Bloknot reported
Zelenskiy said that he will approve the supply of ammonia from the Russian Federation to the port of Odessa during the prisoner exchange according to the formula “all of us”.
The Ukrainian leader announced this on September 16. “I am against the supply of ammonia from the Russian Federation through our region. I will only do this in exchange for our prisoners,” he said.
The Kremlin said the idea was inappropriate. “Are humans and ammonia the same thing?!” said Dmitry Peskov. 5 days later, on September 23, RTVI reported that on the day of the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia, one of the largest exchanges of prisoners of war with Ukraine took place – 55 Russian soldiers returned to their homeland in exchange for 215 Ukrainian soldiers. , including fighters of the Azov regiment captured during the siege of Azovstal in Mariupol (the organization is prohibited in Russia). Moscow also received Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.