UN, Russia to discuss Ukraine grain extension

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UN, Russia to discuss Ukraine grain extension

The United Nations and Russia will hold talks in Geneva on Monday on renewing the Ukraine grain export deal, with the UN saying millions of dollars will still be in the hands of its extension.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year saw Ukraine's Black Sea ports blocked by warships until a deal in July allowed for the safe passage of critical grain supplies.

More than 23.7 million tons of grain have been exported under the UN and Turkey-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, according to the United Nations.

The BSGI deal, which helped ease the global food crisis caused by the invasion, will automatically renew on March 18 unless Moscow or Kyiv objected.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that extending the deal was becoming complicated because he claimed that a parallel agreement on Russian exports was not being respected.

The BSGI aims to facilitate the export of Russian food and fertilisers, which are not subject to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, while the export of Ukrainian grain is the second agreement between Moscow and the UN.

The issue of extension becomes quite complicated if the package is half fulfilled, Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.

The United States and the European Union don't believe that no sanctions are applied to food and fertilisers, but this position is dishonest, Lavrov said.

The sanctions prohibit foreign ships from entering Russian ports to pick up grain and fertilisers, and he said that Russian ships are unable to enter the corresponding ports because of the sanctions.

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that a Russian interdepartmental delegation will go to Geneva for the talks.

She said the talks would include UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, Rebeca Grynspan.

The deal will be discussed, the spokeswoman told reporters.

The UN confirmed that the talks would be held on Monday.

UNCTAD said the deal had allowed for greater consistency and predictability, helping to mitigate price shocks in the international market.

The results need to be scaled up, according to the BSGI. There is too much at stake and the situation is dire. Without the initiative, millions of lives are put in a precarious position.

The renewal of the BSGI gives hope that the world's most vulnerable can make it through the crises. Every effort is needed to keep this hope alive. On Tuesday, UN chief Antonio Guterres said it was important to extend the deal during a visit to Kyiv. Grynspan was in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday for talks on the BSGI.

Grynspan has been pushing to make sure that Russian fertiliser exports are cleared, according to Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Ukraine is one of the world's top grain producers.

During the first four months of its operation, the BSGI accounted for 60 percent of the total Ukrainian export volumes of corn, wheat and barley, according to UNCTAD.

Nearly half of the exports are corn and more than a quarter wheat.

Around 45 percent of the exports went to developed countries. The biggest recipient was China, followed by Spain, Turkey, Italy and the Netherlands.