Russia withdrew from an agreement that restarted Ukrainian exports from the Black Sea over the weekend, though it hasn’t stopped ships from leaving the port thus far.
Seventeen vessels carrying corn, wheat, grain, and sunflower meal have transited through the Black Sea since Russia withdrew from the deal, according to the United Nations. Russia withdrew from the agreement, which had been brokered by Turkish officials in July, following an attack on a naval vessel in the port of Sevastopol.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of attempting “to exacerbate the global food crisis,” saying that is an indication “Russia will continue to oppose itself to the entire international community,” during his latest nightly address.
“I am grateful to both Mr. Scholz and Mr. Guterres for supporting our actions aimed at preserving the grain export initiative and preventing the spread of large-scale famine in some regions of the world,” he said. “It is very important now to prevent this global destabilization that Russia seeks. And we can prevent it.”
Days earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry labeled the attack in Sevastopol a “terrorist attack” and accused “British specialists” of facilitating the attack “under the cover of the humanitarian corridor set up for the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” which they then withdrew from.
“We are not saying that we are stopping our participation in this operation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a news conference on Monday, per the New York Times. “We are saying that we are pausing it.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intends to speak with both Putin and Zelensky in the coming days to discuss the maritime situation, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.
“We believe in the restoration of the deal. It would be beneficial for everyone,” he noted, later explaining that the grave importance of allowing Ukrainian exports to leave “is to be addressed separately from the war.”
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken “urge[d] all parties to keep this essential, life-saving Initiative function” in a statement on Saturday evening, noting that the Black Sea Grain Initiative has already moved more than 9 million metric tons of food around the world.
“Any act by Russia to disrupt these critical grain exports is essentially a statement that people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry,” Blinken said. “In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity.”
Prior to Ukraine and Russia agreeing to the deal in July, Russia had barred Ukrainian export ships from leaving the port. Ukraine was the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, the fourth-largest of corn, and the fifth-largest of wheat.
