The United Nations said on Monday that hundreds of millions of people would “pay the price” for Russia’s refusal to extend a deal on grain exports from Ukraine, as Kyiv urged the international community to ensure the Black Sea trade continued despite Moscow’s cancellation of security guarantees for shipping.
The Kremlin announced its withdrawal from the pact hours after explosions that it blamed on Ukraine closed a major bridge linking Russia to occupied Crimea, but it said the deadly blast did not influence its decision to leave a deal that it claims has been implemented unfairly, without meeting terms that were supposed to boost Russian exports.
The UN and Turkey brokered agreements last July under which Russia lifted its blockade of one Ukrainian Black Sea port, allowing Kyiv to send grain to world markets. Almost 33 million tonnes of food products were exported via Odesa as a result.
“I deeply regret the decision by the Russian Federation to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative – including the withdrawal of Russian security guarantees for navigation in the northwestern part of the Black Sea,” UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
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“Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis. They will pay the price. Indeed, we are already seeing a jump in wheat prices this morning,” he added.
Mr Guterres said most of Russia’s complaints about the deal had been, or were being, addressed, through the creation of mechanisms to bypass sanctions to allow payment for Russian grain and fertiliser, and to reduce insurance costs for shipping firms.
Mr Guterres said he wrote to Russian president Vladimir Putin recently about these initiatives, to persuade him to extend the deal: “I am deeply disappointed that my proposals went unheeded. Today’s decision by the Russian Federation will strike a blow to people in need everywhere.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “the Black Sea agreements are no longer in effect ... Unfortunately, the part of the Black Sea agreement that concerns Russia has not yet been fulfilled. As a result, it has been terminated.”
He added, however, that “as soon as the Russian part [of the deal] is met, the Russian side will immediately return to implementation of this deal.”
The foreign ministry in Moscow said Russia’s refusal to prolong the deal meant “the withdrawal of safety guarantees for navigation ... and restoration of the ‘temporarily dangerous area’ regime in the northwestern Black Sea”.
Kyiv noted, however, that Ukraine and Russia actually signed separate agreements with the UN and Turkey, and said it wanted to continue with its part of the deal.
“Even without the Russian Federation, everything must be done to allow us to use this Black Sea corridor,” a spokesman for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy quoted him as saying.
“We are not afraid. We were approached by companies that own ships. They said they are willing, so if Ukraine will let them out and Turkey will let them pass, then everyone is ready to continue supplying grain.”
Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Minister for Transport and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the Russian grain blockade should be investigated by the International Criminal Court.
Mr Ryan told The Irish Times that the Government had “real concerns” about the impact of the decision of the Russia to end the agreement.
He said: “This decision on blocking basic food materials and fertilisers from being transported to the rest of the world is a direct threat to the lives of the poorest people on the planet.”
Asked whether the move represented a possible war crime, the Minister said the International Criminal Court would be the best entity to investigate what is happening in Russia. He said he understood its focus so far had been on the treatment of Ukrainian children by Russia but the Government would be supportive of the International Criminal Court “pursuing to the maximum those questions as it is a direct threat to the security of the wider world”.
