CNN –
Russia said on Monday it was suspending its participation in a key deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports, fueling renewed fears about global food supplies and shattering a rare diplomatic breakthrough following Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The deal, negotiated by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022, was officially due to expire on Monday at 5 p.m. ET (midnight local time in Istanbul, Kyiv and Moscow).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday Russia would not renew the pact at this time, saying it was “cancelled.”
Russia has complained for some time about being prevented from exporting enough of its own food, and Peskov cited this objection as a reason for withdrawing from the deal. “Once the Russian part is completed, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this agreement,” he told reporters.
Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the agreement’s main objective – to supply grain to countries in need – had “not been met” and again lamented that Russia was facing obstacles in exporting its own food.
Peskov left the door open to a future revival of the deal, saying Russia will stick to it “once the Russian part (of the deal) is finalized.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week accused Russia of using the grain deal “as a weapon”. And Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS Monday that “Russia has been slowly nixing the grain initiative from one expansion to the next.”
“Grain prices will rise around the world and people in the most vulnerable regions of Asia and Africa will feel it,” he said.
The deal allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea, with ships bypassing a Russian blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports and allowing safe passage via Turkey’s Bosphorus waterway to reach global markets.
The ships were inspected by Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials before arriving in Ukraine to ensure no arms were being smuggled into Ukraine.
It proved crucial in stabilizing global food prices and relieving developing countries that depend on Ukrainian exports. The impact of the war on global food markets was immediate and extremely painful, particularly as Ukraine is a major grain supplier to the World Food Program (WFP).
According to the European Commission, Ukraine accounts for 10% of the world wheat market, 15% of the corn market and 13% of the barley market. It is also a major global player in the sunflower oil market. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN agency, warned at the time that up to 47 million people could become “severely food insecure” as a result of the war.
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Since its implementation, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has enabled almost 33 million tons of food to be exported from Ukraine. The World Food Program has shipped more than 725,000 tonnes in support of humanitarian operations, helping alleviate hunger in some of the world’s hardest-hit areas, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Exports made under the agreement had gradually declined in recent months; UN figures show that May and June were the two months with the fewest tonnes exported since August 2022.
By withdrawing from the pact, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that its government was withdrawing guarantees for safe shipping in the Black Sea.
There are alternative rail routes for Ukraine’s grain and oilseed exports through Eastern Europe, but these cannot easily handle the volume Ukraine wishes to export.
A UN official confirmed to CNN that the UN office in Istanbul, Turkey, received a written notice from Russia on Monday about the termination of participation.
The UN official said their main concern is the inevitable human suffering that will result from the termination of the deal: “In a hungry and suffering world, the stakes are simply too great.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday after Russia pulled out of the grain deal. “This is yet another attempt by Russia to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market,” Zelenskyy said in a post on his Telegram page.
He said Russia’s critical decision “endangered the lives of 400 million people in many countries dependent on Ukrainian food exports.” The most critical situation is in such countries of Africa and Asia.”
Russia’s objections to the deal centered on claims that barriers to food and fertilizer exports have still not been eased.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an on-camera interview last Thursday that “not a single point related to the fact that there are interests of the Russian Federation has not been fulfilled.” Despite this, we have voluntarily renewed this deal several times. Well, listen, that’s enough in the end.”
When questioned, Peskov denied that Russia’s decision to let the deal expire was linked to Ukraine’s alleged attack on Monday on the bridge connecting mainland Russia with occupied Crimea. “These are absolutely independent events,” he said.
Moscow had previously threatened to withdraw from the agreement. The pact was on the brink of failure in late October and early November 2022 when Russia withdrew its involvement over drone strikes on the city of Sevastopol. However, after mediation in these cases, Moscow decided to reverse course.
The head of the Grains Union of Ukraine dismissed Putin’s claims that Ukraine failed to fulfill an essential part of the grain deal by ensuring grain was exported to poorer countries, calling it “manipulation”.
Although 60% of the grain exported from Ukraine is transported through European ports, “that doesn’t mean that Europe will accept this grain as an end-user,” Nikolay Gorbachev told CNN’s Isa Soares.
He said the international community must “find the lever” to bring grain from Ukraine to the world market, adding that he is “sure that Ukraine can export grain without Russia” if it receives “international support”. .
“The international community and developed countries must find a lever to bring grain from Ukraine to the world market,” the president said.
According to Gorbachev, this support could come from the Turkish fleet or insurance guarantees from companies like Lloyds.
Western officials were quick to condemn Russia’s decision to pull out of the deal.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday condemned Russia’s decision “despite the efforts” of Turkey and the United Nations.
“Russia’s illegal war on #Ukraine continues to harm millions of vulnerable people around the world,” he added in a tweet.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also condemned the Kremlin’s move. “Putin uses food as a weapon,” Cleverly tweeted, stressing that this decision “harms the world’s poorest.”
Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau described it in a tweet as “nothing less than an act of economic aggression against the countries of the Global South most dependent on Ukrainian grain.”
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Russia’s decision was “further proof of who is friend and who is foe of the poorest countries”.
“Using the raw material that feeds the world as a weapon is another crime against humanity,” Meloni said in a statement.
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The deal marked a rare diplomatic breakthrough in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“It is absolutely immoral that Russia continues to use food as a weapon,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Twitter. “It is disappointing that #Russia is blocking the expansion of the Black Sea Grains Initiative. The extension of the agreement is important to prevent food price increases and market destabilization.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission of the European Union, said she “strongly condemns” Russia’s withdrawal, calling it a “cynical move to end the Black Sea Grains Initiative, despite the efforts of the United Nations and Turkey”.
And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the key players in finalizing the deal, said Monday that he might phone Putin about the decision without waiting for their planned visit in August, according to Turkish state media Anadolu and Portal.
The deal had caused some tension in Europe after the European Union decided to remove all tariffs on grain from Ukraine by land to ease exports.
In response, to stem the unrest, the EU passed a temporary measure banning the export of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds originating in Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – a move Zelenskyy opposed.