Nebenzya explained the lack of prospects for extending the grain deal

The Russian side sees no prospects for extending the Black Sea Food Initiative in the light of zero progress in eliminating its shortcomings. The corresponding statement was made on Monday, June 5, by Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.

The diplomat pointed out that the claims listed by Russia regarding the implementation of the grain deal have not yet been removed – five systemic tasks formulated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not been resolved.

It is not possible to eliminate the shortcomings, despite all the efforts of the UN Secretariat and personally the Secretary General of the world organization António Guterres, Nebenzia stressed.

Since without the implementation of the tasks listed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the functioning of the memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN within the framework of the grain deal is impossible. This means that there are no prospects for prolonging the agreement, the Russian envoy concluded.

Earlier, the UN said that the Russian side notified the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul about restricting the passage of ships to the port of Yuzhny in Odessa as part of the implementation of the Black Sea food initiative. This decision will remain in effect until the part of the agreement is implemented, relating to the export of ammonia.

Another claim from Moscow concerns the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT international bank data exchange system. Russian authorities have warned that if Rosselkhozbank is not reconnected to SWIFT, grain deal will have to look for an alternative.