The deputy head of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Sergey Vershinin, has suggested that the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which established a humanitarian maritime corridor to allow ships to export grain and other foodstuffs from Ukraine, will be terminated on 18 July.
However, he emphasized that the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry was not ruling out new contacts with United Nations representatives to discuss the future of the Black Sea grain deal, the CFTS portal reports, citing Russia’s Interfax news agency.
"We are not ruling them (contacts with the UN) out, but we continue to do what we said: we are working to make sure that 18 July is the date when the agreements that are not being implemented (according to the Russian Federation) are terminated," Vershinin told reporters.
He added that the Russian Federation would not withdraw its demand to resume the transit of ammonia through the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline, although it is physically impossible now. As reported earlier, Russian troops have twice attacked the section of this ammonia pipeline in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region.
As the CFTS reported, the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a day earlier that there was no chance of extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The Russians have been sabotaging the operation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as much as possible in recent months, and the passage of ships to the ports of Greater Odesa has either been completely stopped or only a few ships have been inspected since the beginning of April.
The number of ship calls at the ports of Greater Odesa was only 40 in May. Meanwhile, Russia’s Black Sea ports received 1,059 and 1,184 vessels in April and May, respectively.
