Guterres discussed with Putin the expansion of the “grain deal”

UN Secretary General António Guterres announced today a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the parties discussed several topics related to the Ukrainian crisis, in particular, the possible expansion of the “grain deal”. He spoke about this during the briefing, broadcast which was hosted on the UN YouTube channel.

“The last time I spoke with Vladimir Putin was this morning. We were able to discuss an agreement on the export of grain from the Black Sea ports and its possible expansion,” he said.

The parties, according to him, discussed the possible expansion of the export of fertilizers from Russia, including ammonium fertilizers. Guterres stressed that the world is now cultivating smaller areas than before, which is why there are real risks of food shortages this year.

“Now it is absolutely necessary to remove the restrictions that still exist in relation to Russian fertilizers,” he concluded.

In addition, the parties discussed sending a mission to establish the facts about the shelling of the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka, as well as the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

Earlier, Putin, speaking at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (WEF), said that only 2 ships from Ukraine out of 87 were sent to countries in need, while the rest were sent to European countries. According to him, only 60,000 out of 2 million tons of agricultural products were delivered to the ports of developing countries. He accused the Western states of deceit and called the situation with the export of grain from the blocked ports of Ukraine “another impudent deception” and “swindle”.

The next day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed with Putin’s statement and confirmed that the grain does not really go to African countries, as was originally supposed, but to rich countries. The British Ministry of Defense, in turn, claimsreferring to UN data that about 30% of Ukrainian grain under the deal was delivered to low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

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