Ukraine wants to continue using the Black Sea corridor without Russia’s participation

Ukraine plans to continue using the Black Sea corridor for grain export without Russia’s participation. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Ukraine Sergey Nikiforov on Facebook (owned by Meta, the social network is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned).

On his social media page, Nikiforov quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from an interview he gave to African journalists.

The Ukrainian president recalled that Kyiv and Moscow did not have any agreements. Ukraine had an agreement with Turkey and the UN. “I instructed our Foreign Ministry, on the official signal of the Russian Federation, to prepare our official signals from the UN and Turkey in order to answer me, as the President of Ukraine, that they are ready to continue our initiative,” Zelensky said.

July 17 Russian Foreign Ministry declaredthat Russia is withdrawing from the grain deal, without its participation, the agreement is terminated on July 18. The termination of the agreements means “the withdrawal of guarantees for the safety of navigation, the curtailment of the maritime humanitarian corridor, the restoration of the regime of a temporarily dangerous area in the northwestern Black Sea,” as well as the disbandment of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said earlier that in fact the Black Sea agreements ceased to be valid today. He stressed that since the Russian part of the deal is not being implemented, its effect is terminated. Moscow is ready to return to the implementation of the agreements as soon as its conditions are met.

The deal was concluded on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey and the UN, on the one hand, and representatives of Russia and Ukraine, on the other. The Ukrainian part of the deal implies the unhindered export of grain from the ports of Odessa, Yuzhny and Chernomorsk, the Russian part – easing restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers. Since then, the agreement has been repeatedly extended, and the last agreement was reached in May.