Ukraine asks its partners to increase pressure on the Russian Federation to unblock exports from Black Sea ports

Despite the continued operation of the grain corridor, representatives of the Russian Federation in the SCC continue to block inspections of ships heading to the port of Pivdenny, so Ukraine asks its partners to increase pressure on the Russian Federation to resolve the situation.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs D. Kuleba met with the head of the African Union (which includes 55 African countries), the president of the Comoros Islands Union, Azali Assoumani, and the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and called on them to appeal to the Russian Federation with a demand to stop obstructing the work of the grain agreement.

"The export of grain from Ukraine helps African countries to get the necessary food, therefore we call on the African Union to declare to Russia the inadmissibility of using food as a weapon and the inadmissibility of such a policy," D. Kuleba emphasized.

The US State Department said that Russia is violating the terms of the grain agreement by blocking the entry of ships to one of the ports of Ukraine. "The parties agreed on the unhindered export of grain from three ports of Ukraine, but the Russian Federation does not allow ships to one of them, which is a violation of the obligations assumed within the framework of the grain agreement," said the representative of the US State Department, Matthew Miller.

The G7 countries in a joint statement also called for the full implementation of the grain agreement and the expansion of the range of supplies.

By blocking the port, the Southern Russian Federation demands the restoration of transit and export of Russian ammonia from it, but the government of Ukraine states that the agreed grain agreement does not refer to transit through the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline. To restore ammonia transit through Ukraine, an additional agreement is needed, which Ukraine will agree to only if the terms of the grain agreement are expanded.

"We believe that if transit through the ammonia pipeline is included in the agreement, then Ukraine should receive additional things that would correspond to national interests, for example, expanding the geography of the agreement and the nomenclature of goods for export through the grain corridor," a source in the government told domestic media.

We will remind you that earlier the Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Yurii Vaskov said that the grain agreement is a temporary solution to the problem, so Ukraine needs a complete unblocking of ports without any restrictions from the aggressor. Ukraine calls on its partners and international organizations to increase pressure on the Russian Federation to ensure free navigation in the Black Sea, as this will also help lower world prices for grain and products of the mining and metallurgical complex.