The UN said that they are not asking for the lifting of sanctions on Russia for the sake of a grain deal.

The UN is not seeking the lifting of sanctions on Russia to resume the grain deal, said Farhan Haq, deputy representative of the world organization’s Secretary General.

Formerly Bild newspaper reportedthat UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres proposed to connect a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT settlement system, create a structure for insuring the export of Russian food and fertilizers, unblock fertilizer cargoes from the Russian Federation in the ports of the European Union, etc.

“The interpretation of the information in the Bild article is incorrect. It seems to say that we are trying to find a way around the sanctions. This is not true,” said the deputy chairman (quote according to TASS).

He clarified that Guterres “began making efforts” to ensure the entry of Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizers into global markets a year ago. “It is important to remember that Russian food and fertilizers are excluded from the sanctions regime,” Haque added. The European Commission also told Bild that the sanctions provide for exceptions that allow Russian ships to enter European ports to purchase or import agricultural products and food products. At the same time, restrictions regarding ships and their insurance, as well as Russian banks that process payments, remain, which does not allow such deliveries to be carried out in practice.

On July 17, Russia left the Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey, the UN, Russia and Ukraine. Moscow explained this by failure to comply with the second part of the agreement, which concerns, among other things, the lifting of restrictions on the supply of Russian products.

On September 4, negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took place in Sochi. Putin noted that Russia would be ready to consider the possibility of resuscitating the deal “as soon as all the agreements contained in it on lifting restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented.”