MID: The West violated the terms of the memorandum of the United Nations and Russia on the supply of agricultural products, the grain deal expires on March 18, the contract is automatically extended in the absence of claims from the parties. The United States, Ukraine and the UN called for the extension of the agreement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the West failed to fulfill the terms of the deal
The United States and Ukraine want to achieve an extension of the grain deal for the export of food from Ukrainian ports, but the agreements concluded earlier do not work, as Kiev and Western countries sabotage their implementation, according to a statement on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“It is obvious that Americans and Europeans do not care about the needs of the countries in need, nor about the efforts of the UN, which they have long and persistently tried to turn into an obedient tool for serving their political goals. <..."The West is shamelessly burying the humanitarian package of the UN Secretary General," the ministry said.
A significant part of Ukrainian grain arrives at dumping prices in the European Union, and not the poorest countries of the world, while agricultural exports from Russia are being “openly hindered,” the Foreign Ministry said, pointing to the need to “stop playing the food card.”
The Ukrainian authorities, for political reasons, do not allow the resumption of ammonia supplies via the Togliatti-Odessa pipeline, despite the fact that the provisions on this are spelled out in both Istanbul agreements, and the transshipment of ammonia could begin synchronously with the export of grain from Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued.
“But neither Ukrainians nor Westerners are at all concerned that as a result of such actions, 2.5 million tons of raw materials were not delivered to the world market, sufficient for the production of 7 million tons of fertilizers to supply 200 million people with food. As they do not care about not only the crisis of the affordability of fertilizers, but also their physical shortage,” the department insists.
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The grain deal was concluded in July 2022, Russia and Ukraine signed it separately with Turkey and the UN acting as intermediaries. The agreement included two parts: an agreement on the safe export of Ukrainian grain from Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, the lifting of restrictions on the access of Russian agricultural products to the world market. Representatives of the UN and Turkey pledged to monitor that no ammunition or weapons will be transported on the ships.
The grain deal expires on March 18. The deal was concluded for 120 days with the condition of automatic extension in the absence of claims from the parties.
The US authorities called on Russia to agree to the extension, the prolongation of the treaty was also supported by UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteris. In Kiev, they intend not only to extend the deal for at least a year (instead of the next 120 days), but also to add the port of Nikolaev to the deal. “The Ukrainian and global agricultural market needs to be able to plan these volumes [of exports] in the long term,” explained Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov.
Diplomats and the Russian authorities have repeatedly noted that the first part of the deal is being respected, while the second part regarding Russian exports is not. At the same time, the Kremlin acknowledged that there is progress in solving this problem: “Both the UN members did a very good job, and our negotiators. That is, there are achievements here in this case, but there is still something to be done.
Turkey and the UN expect Western countries to guarantee that there will be no obstacles to the export of Russian agricultural products and ammonia, a source familiar with the negotiations on the grain deal told RIA Novosti at the end of February.
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