Russia, Ukraine extend grain shipping deal
Pact will continue to help countries where hunger remains a growing threat.
KYIV, Ukraine — An unprecedented wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia — where hunger is a growing threat — was extended just before its expiration date, officials said Saturday.
The United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the extension, but neither confirmed how long it would last. The U.N., Turkey and Ukraine had pushed for 120 days, while Russia said it was willing to agree to 60 days.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, a deputy prime minister in Ukraine, tweeted Saturday that the deal would remain in effect for the longer, fourmonth period. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian state news agency Tass that Moscow “agreed to extend the deal for 60 days.”
“Any claim that it’s prolonged for more than 60 days is either wishful thinking or deliberate manipulation,” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the U.N., Dmitry Polyansky, said.
This is the second renewal of the agreement that Ukraine and Russia signed with the United Nations and Turkey last July to allow food shipments from three Black Sea ports following a halt to shipping after Russia invaded its neighbor over a year ago on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other affordable food products that developing nations depend on. Two ships carrying more than 96,000 metric tons of corn left Ukrainian ports Saturday bound for China and Tunisia, according to U.N. data.
Russia has complained that a separate agreement with the United Nations to overcome obstacles to shipments of its fertilizers that was part of the July package has not produced results.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that the United Nations has to recognize it has “no leverage to exempt Russian agricultural export operations from Western sanctions,” and therefore Russia would only extend the deal until May 18.
“If Brussels, Washington and London are genuinely interested to continue the export of food from Ukraine through the maritime humanitarian corridor, then they have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector,” Nebenzia said. “Otherwise, we fail to understand how the package concept of the secretary-general of the United Nations will work through these simple agreements.”
The International Rescue Committee expressed disappointment Saturday that the deal is for only 60 days, stressing that countries in East Africa in particular will be entering the lean grain season at the time of its expiration in May, including Somalia, which receives more than 90% of its grain from Ukraine and is beset by unprecedented drought and on the verge of famine.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement that about 28 million tons of grain and foodstuffs had moved to 45 countries under the initiative, helping to bring down global food prices.
“We remain strongly committed to both agreements and we urge all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully,” Dujarric said.
The war in Ukraine sent food prices surging to record highs last year and helped contribute to a global food crisis also tied to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate factors like drought.
The disruption in shipments of grain needed for staples of diets in places like Egypt, Lebanon and Nigeria exacerbated economic challenges and helped push millions more people into poverty or food insecurity. People in developing countries spend more of their money on basics like food.
The crisis left an estimated 345 million people facing food insecurity, according to the U.N.’s World Food Program.
Food prices have fallen for 11 straight months, but food was already expensive before the war because of droughts from the Americas to the Middle East — most devastating in the Horn of Africa, with thousands dying in Somalia. Poorer nations that depend on imported food priced in dollars are spending more as their currencies weaken.