KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey said on Thursday that “certain negotiations” were under way regarding a UN-brokered grain export initiative which was shut down in the summer of 2023.
A Black Sea deal was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July 2022 to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The two countries are among the world’s top grain exporters.
In July 2023 Russia halted its participation in the deal stating that the terms of its participation in the agreement were not being met.
“Unfortunately, this grain initiative is not functioning at the moment, although certain negotiations are ongoing to find a format for possible assistance from international partners to Ukraine,” Vasyl Bodnar told a online briefing.
He provided no more details.
Ukraine launched its own shipping corridor hugging its western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria last August after Moscow withdrew from the UN-brokered deal.
Since then it has exported around 16.5 million metric tons of cargo – mostly food – via the route.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Christina Fincher and Jason Neely)
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