UN Secretary General Worried Russia Will Abandon Black Sea Grain Deal Next Month

Illustration of the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres. (Wikimedia Commons/IAEA Imagebank)

JAKARTA - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was worried Russia would walk out of a deal allowing safe wartime exports of grain and fertilizer from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports on July 17.

Moscow has threatened to walk out of a deal known as the Black Sea grain initiative - brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July last year - if obstacles to its grain and fertilizer shipments are not removed.

"I am concerned and we are working hard to ensure that the Black Sea initiative can be sustained. At the same time, we can continue our efforts to facilitate Russian exports," Guterres told reporters.

To convince Russia to agree to the Black Sea grain deal, a three-year memorandum of understanding was signed at the same time, in which UN officials agreed to assist Russia with its own exports of food and fertilizer.

Although Russian food and fertilizer exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have been a hindrance to shipments.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said on Saturday Russia "cannot be satisfied with how this memorandum was implemented," the TASS news agency reported.

He made this known after meeting with the UN's top trade official Rebeca Grynspan in Geneva on Friday.

Among the demands put forward by Russia are the resumption of pipeline exports of ammonia to the Pivdennyi port in Ukraine and the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to SWIFT's international payment system.

The United Nations has helped boost Russia's exports of food and fertilizer, facilitated the steady flow of ships to its ports and lowered freight and insurance rates, a spokesman for the organization said Friday.