Ruling Out Of Black Sea Grain Deal, UN Secretary General: Termination Of Russia's Commitment

Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Kitack Lim while reviewing the seeds to be exported from Ukraine via the Black Sea. (Wikimedia Commons/International Maritime Organization)

JAKARTA - Moscow's decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Deal also means termination of Russia's commitment to a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations (UN) to the agreement, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday.

"With the decision to end the Black Sea Initiative, the Russian Federation also ends its commitment to 'facilitating the unhindered export of food, sunflower oil and fertilizers from the Black Sea Ports controlled by Ukraine', as stated in Article 1 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federation and the United Nations -Nation," he explained, citing TASS, July 17.

Meanwhile, "since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, and also taking into account the measures adopted by the Russian Federation, Russia's grain trade has achieved high export volumes and the fertilizer market has stabilized with Russian exports almost fully recovering, as stated by Union of Russian Grain Exporters and Association of Fertilizer Producers of Russia," explained the UN Secretary-General, adding that he also underlined this in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"My letter also mentioned that the Russian Federation has highlighted the issue of access to SWIFT by the Agricultural Bank of Russia as a key factor influencing its decision. In this regard, the United Nations recently brokered a concrete proposal to allow Russian Agricultural Bank subsidiaries to regain access to SWIFT by European Commission," he said.

"The letter then went into detail how: "We have built a bespoke payment mechanism for the Agricultural Bank of Russia through JP Morgan outside of SWIFT," he added.

Russia on Monday decided not to extend the Black Sea grain deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

Earlier, the last ship carrying grain left Ukraine under the deal on Sunday. This deal has been extended several times, but will expire on Monday.

Russia has said for months the conditions for the treaty's extension have not been met, saying the part concerning Russia has not been implemented.

"In fact, the Black Sea agreement is no longer valid today," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.

"Unfortunately, that part of the Black Sea agreement concerning Russia has not been implemented so far, so its effect has been nullified," Peskov continued.

Moscow has long been known to complain that there are still obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports, although these have not been directly agreed to by the West, putting forward a series of demands which it says have yet to be met.

"As soon as the Russian part of this agreement is fulfilled, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this agreement, immediately," Peskov said.

Peskov added that this decision was not related to the attack that occurred on the Crimean bridge, which he called a terrorist act and blamed Ukraine.

"These are completely unrelated events. Even before the terrorist attack, this position was announced by President Putin," Peskov said.

Russia has threatened to walk out of the deal, saying its demands to increase its own exports of grain and fertilizer have not been met. Russia also complains that not enough grain is getting to poor countries.

Russia's main request was for the Agricultural Bank of Russia (Rosselkhozbank) to be reconnected to the SWIFT international payment system. The bank was cut off from SWIFT by the European Union in June 2022, due to the invasion of Ukraine.