Ukraine starts negotiations with partners to extend “grain deal”

Ukraine has started negotiations with partners to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative. This is reported by Reuters.

“Ukraine has begun online talks with partners to expand the Black Sea Grain Initiative, aimed at ensuring that Kyiv can continue to supply grain to world markets,” the publication writes, citing a source in the Ukrainian government.

The source also said that Ukraine has not held talks with Russia, which blocked Ukrainian ports after its invasion last year. At the same time, Kyiv understands that its partners are talking to Moscow as well.

“The situation with the negotiations is quite complicated. Much depends not on us, but on our partners,” the source said.

As a reminder, the grain initiative was launched by the UN and Turkey in July last year and made it possible to export grain from three Ukrainian ports. The agreement was extended in November and is due to expire on March 18.

On March 1, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy announced that Ukraine was negotiating with the UN and Turkey to extend the Grain Corridor. Turkey, in turn, assured that it would make every effort to extend the agreement.

Earlier, the Ministry of Infrastructure reported that Russia continues to artificially impede the inspection of ships in the Bosphorus, and the rate of ships leaving ports has fallen to a critically low level.

Tags: Ukraine, export, grain, war