BLACK SEA GRAIN DEAL ‘LOST MEANING’: PUTIN

Mon 24 July 2023:

Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal that ensured the safe export of Ukrainian grains because the agreement lost its meaning, President Vladimir Putin has said.

“The continuation of the ‘grain deal’ – which did not justify its humanitarian purpose – has lost its meaning,” Putin said, according to the article on the Kremlin’s website.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, commonly known as the grain deal, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired on July 18, as Russia did not extend its participation. Moscow has been repeatedly critical of the fact that the deal’s provisions pertaining to Russia had not been fulfilled.

“Many have probably heard of the so-called ‘grain deal,’ whose initial purpose was to ensure global food security, reduce the threat of hunger and help the poorest countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America – the reason why Russia undertook the obligation to facilitate its implementation in the first place. This ‘deal,’ however, while it was publicly advertised by the West as a gesture of goodwill that benefited Africa, has in fact been shamelessly used solely for the enrichment of large US and European businesses that exported and resold grain from Ukraine,” Putin said.

The Russian president emphasized that, in almost a year, a total of 32.8 million tonnes (metric tons) of supplies were exported from Ukraine under the grain deal, with over 70% of the exports ending up in high- and upper-middle-income countries, while countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Yemen and Afghanistan, received less than 3% of the supplies.

“In the meantime, none of the ‘deal’ provisions relating to the exemption from sanctions of Russian grain and fertiliser exports to world markets, were fulfilled,” Putin wrote.

The Russian president stressed that barriers have been mounted to Russia’s attempts to supply free of charge mineral fertilizers to the poorest countries in need.

“Of 262,000 tonnes of goods blocked in European ports, only two shipments were delivered – one of 20,000 tonnes to Malawi and one of 34,000 tonnes to Kenya. The rest is still unscrupulously held by the Europeans. And this is a purely humanitarian initiative we are talking about, which should be exempt from any sanctions as such,” Putin said, adding that, considering all these facts, “there is no longer any use in continuing the ‘grain deal’ as it has failed to serve its original humanitarian purpose.”

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