U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced the four-month extension of a wartime agreement with Russia that will Ukraine's grain shipments to sail on the Black Sea and on to foreign ports, helping alleviate hunger and high food prices.
The first ships carrying exports of grain and fertilizer sailed this summer under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a United Nations-brokered agreement signed between the world body, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey on July 22.
Nearly 11.2 million metric tons of grain and other food have been exported from the three Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi (formerly known as Yuzhnyi) on 471 outbound shipments, according to the Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center established on July 27 in Istanbul.
The center said at the start that it expected up to 5 million metric tons a month to be shipped out of the three ports under the deal. As of last month, 49% of Ukraine's wheat shipments and 23% of all the nation's grain and food exports went to lower- and lower-middle-income nations, according to Martin Griffiths, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
'Discreet diplomacy' wins out
The deal that Ukraine and Russia signed in separate agreements also has allowed 470 ships to re-enter those ports in Ukraine after sailing on the Black Sea. Due to Russia's continued strikes on Ukraine, the deal's renewal was uncertain as its expiration neared this week.
The decision to prolong the deal followed two days of "constructive" discussions at Istanbul among the four delegations representing Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, Turkey's Defense Ministry said. The deal was extended “without any changes in terms and scope," according the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"I welcome the agreement by all parties to continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative to facilitate the safe navigation of export of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizers from Ukraine," Guterres said on Thursday. "The initiative demonstrates the importance of discreet diplomacy in finding multilateral solutions."
Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov confirmed the deal was prolonged for 120 days after Ukraine "appealed to the partners with a proposal to extend the initiative for one year and to include the Mykolaiv port in it."
He praised Turkish leaders for making "another important step in the global fight against the food crisis."
