The Russian president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that the Black Sea Grain Initiative ceased to be in effect on 17 July, the CFTS portal reports, citing the TASS news agency.
"Essentially, the Black Sea agreements are no longer in effect today. The part of this Black Sea agreement concerning Russia has not been implemented. Therefore, it has been terminated," he said.
According to Peskov, Moscow will return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative as soon as Russia’s demands are met.
"The grain deal has ended. The Russian side will return to the implementation of the agreement as soon as the Russian part [of the deal] is implemented," he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on 14 July that the president of Russia had agreed to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward said in early July that she was not confident the Black Sea Grain Initiative would be extended. "The UN is doing all it can, and we will do all we can. We've already worked very closely with the City of London to enable a very complex payment system for grain to make it work," Woodward said.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s special envoy and the Council of Exporters and Investors’ coordinator Olha Trofymtseva expressed the view that the European Union should make no concessions to Russia by reconnecting a sanctioned Russian bank to the global financial network in exchange for an extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
