Ukraine envoy says Russia unlikely to renew grain deal in July

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Jun 2023 22:01

Ambassador at Large with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Olga Trofimtseva, said she is 99.99% that Russia will abandon the grain deal in July.

A farmer collects harvest on his field ten kilometers from the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on July 4, 2022 (AP)

Russia is unlikely to agree on the extension of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative with Ukraine and Turkey in July, Olga Trofimtseva, Ambassador at Large with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.

"[As for] the grain corridor, 99.9% that Russia will abandon it in July," Trofimtseva wrote on Telegram.

Trofimtseva's forecast is based on the fact that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mandate got renewed in May and that Russia has almost completed the construction of a new ammonia export terminal that will reduce the importance of the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline whose fertilizer transits were covered in a UN memorandum under the grain deal.

Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an UN-brokered agreement last July to establish a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships transporting food and fertilizers from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

The initial 120-day agreement was extended once in November and was due to expire on March 18, but it was extended for two additional months and then another two on May 18, 2023.

On June 9, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin blamed Ukraine for a blast on a key ammonia pipeline and warned that it could affect the consultations to renew the grain export deal, as per RIA news agency.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said earlier this week that July 18 may potentially be the last day of the grain deal initiative.