Putin’s spokesman announces termination of “grain deal”

On 17 July, Russian President’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the actual termination of the “grain deal”, which provides for the export of Ukrainian grain to Middle East and African countries.

This was reported by the Russian propaganda agency TASS.

“The Black Sea agreements have ceased to be in force today. As the President of the Russian Federation said earlier, the deadline is 17 July. Unfortunately, the part concerning Russia in this Black Sea agreement has not been fulfilled so far. Therefore, it is terminated”.

Dmitry Peskov, Russian President’s spokesman

Russian dictator’s spokesman stressed that Russia is ready to return to the agreement if its terms are fulfilled.

“The ‘grain deal’ has stopped. As soon as the Russian part is fulfilled, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this agreement,” Peskov said.

Mr Peskov added that Russia’s withdrawal from the deal was not related to the explosions on the Crimean Bridge.

What you need to know about the “grain deal”

The agreement, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was concluded separately between Russia and the UN and Ukraine and the UN with Turkish mediation in July 2022 in Istanbul. It has since been extended several times.

In January, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine said that due to Russian actions in the Bosphorus, the world loses millions of tonnes of Ukrainian food every month. The Russian invaders are hampering the inspection of ships exporting grain to third-world countries.

In March 2023, the Russian Federation informed the parties of the agreement to extend the deal for only 60 days instead of 120. The agreement was due to expire on 18 May.

To extend it, the Russians demanded:

• reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT
• resumption of supply of agricultural machinery, spare parts and service
• cancellation of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, plus lifting the ban on access to ports
• resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline
• unblocking foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to the production and transportation of food and fertilisers.

The Western economic sanctions were introduced against Russia for its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.

On 17 May, the grain deal was extended for 60 days. The Russians’ demands still needed to be met.

On 5 June, the Russian Federation said it saw no prospects of extending the agreement in July.

This weekend, the last ship with Ukrainian grain left the port of Odesa under the current grain deal.

Read also: Russia used Grain deal to get sanction exemptions for its bank

The importance of the grain pact

According to the U.N.’s Joint Coordination Centre, which manages the scheme, 32 million tonnes of food and fertiliser have been sent from Ukraine since it began.

Ukraine exported less than 1.4 million tonnes of grain in June 2023. It had shipped nearly four million tonnes per month during the previous nine months.

This is partly because Ukrainian farmers are producing less due to the ongoing war in significant portions of the nation.

The U.N. warned that “emergency levels of hunger” were threatening 44 million people in 38 nations.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, global food prices have dropped by 20% since the grain agreement was reached in July 2022.