Black Sea grain export agreement will not happen again, Russia stops participation

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia has suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain export deal. The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to ease a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainians to safely export grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It had been extended several times, but was to expire on Monday. Russia had been saying for months that the conditions for its expansion had not been met.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that in fact the Black Sea agreements are no longer valid. Unfortunately, the part of these Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not yet been implemented, so it has lost its effect. Moscow has long complained that barriers to its grain and fertilizer exports remain, even though these were not directly approved by the West, and has presented a number of demands which it says cannot be met. has not been done. Peskov said that as soon as the Russian part of the agreements is completed, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this agreement.

He said the decision not to renew the deal was not related to the overnight attack on the bridge between Russia and Crimea, which he called an act of terrorism and blamed Ukraine. The Ukrainian military suggested the attack may have been some kind of provocation by Russia but Ukrainian media, citing unnamed sources, said Ukraine’s security service was behind the incident.