“Kommersant”: the discussion of the grain deal will be resumed next week

Discussions on the grain deal will be resumed next week, Kommersant reports.

Earlier it was reported that the discussion was supposed to take place on Friday, May 5, but instead, preliminary negotiations were held between representatives of the technical staff of the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said that the parties continue to discuss the possibility of reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT as part of a grain deal. He added that if the crisis around the grain deal is not resolved and the demands of the Russian Federation are not met, food prices will rise again. Cavusoglu also said that he would travel to Moscow on May 10 to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and participate in the four-party talks on Syria.

Earlier it was reported that the next series of negotiations on the grain deal reached an impasse. Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the UN have not reached an agreement on new ships capable of exporting grain. UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said daily inspections of previously authorized vessels would continue. Earlier, Cavusoglu said that Russian grain and fertilizers were removed from sanctions, but financial and insurance services for these transactions were not, so the deal could fail.

The grain deal expires on May 18. On April 25, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the attacks organized by the Kyiv regime on the Russian Black Sea Fleet called into question the extension of the grain deal. The department recalled that in addition to April 24, a similar attack was launched on March 23, and both of them violated the guarantees given by Kiev. As previously reported, Ukrainian drones attacked the base of the Black Sea Fleet in the city of Sevastopol and civilian infrastructure in Crimea.

The Ministry of Defense indicated that for the attack, the armed formations of Ukraine used the port of Odessa, which is used as part of the implementation of the grain deal as agreed by the parties. The ministry also recalled that in October last year, after in response to Ukraine’s attack on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in the implementation of the deal, Russia suspended the implementation of the agreement. It was resumed only after the provision of guarantees from Turkey, as well as written commitments from the Kyiv authorities not to use the humanitarian corridor and ports for combat operations against Russia.

The grain deal was concluded on July 22, 2022. Within its framework, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN agreed to organize the export of food from Ukrainian ports.