The grain agreement will not be extended

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine 

The grain agreement will not be extended  

 

Peter Schwartz,  

Ebba Torstensson 

 

Updated 11:29 | Published at 10:36 am

 

Despite the outside world's attempts to convince Russia to extend it, the Kremlin is now stopping the grain agreement.  

 

The agreement is decisive for food prices worldwide. 

 

- We need to have ice in our stomachs, says Aid and Foreign Trade Minister Johan Forssell.  

 

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the agreement can be resumed once their demands are met. 

 

"When the part of the Black Sea Agreement related to Russia is implemented, Russia will immediately return to the implementation of the agreement," Peskov said during a press conference, according to AP.

 

From Kremlin's side, it is believed that the agreement only benefited Ukrane. As recently as April, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov warned that the agreement would not be extended unless it met the country's demands for the export of fertilizers and agricultural products. 

 

UN rescue attempt 

 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a letter last week to Putin in which he proposed various proposals to save the agreement. A UN spokesman said on Friday that Guterres was still awaiting a response.  

 

In a phone call, Putin told South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday that "the agreement had not met its objective".  

 

- The main goal of the agreement to ship grain to countries in need, among other African states, has not been implemented, Putin said. 

 

Russia has wanted the bank Rosselkhozbank, which handles agricultural payments, to be reintegrated into the Swift international payment system. But the EU has not considered Russian banks that were excluded. 

 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Photo: Odelyn Joseph/AP 

 

Decisive for world food prices 

  

Both Russia and Ukraine are among the world's largest grain exporters. Before the war, they accounted for almost a quarter of the world's grain exports. The UN and Turkey negotiated the agreement last July after the outbreak of war to secure grain exports on the Black Sea.  

The grain agreement has been decisive for food prices around the world and most of all for many developing countries that feed on Ukrainian grain. According to figures from the UN, 47 percent of grain exports have gone to high-income countries, 26 percent to middle-income countries and 27 percent to low-income countries.   

 

The extension is in Putin's hands  

 

With the agreement in place, ships carrying grain have been able to sail along a safe corridor to the Bosphorus in northwest Turkey. To then reach the world market.  

 

Russia has several times previously threatened to cancel the settlement. Before the agreement's third renewal in May, the Kremlin had given vague indications of an extension, only to extend it at the last minute.  

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Pavel Bednyakov / TT NEWS AGENCY