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Russia reverses course and joins grain export deal with Ukraine

Russia reverses course and joins grain export deal with Ukraine

(CNN) — Russia has rejoined a deal to guarantee the safe passage of ships carrying key grain exports from Ukraine, days after it announced it would stop participating in the deal, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Moscow suspended its participation in the deal on Saturday, citing drone strikes on the city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had received “guarantees” that would allow the program to resume.

“The Russian Federation considers the guarantees received so far to be sufficient and reactivates the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its official Telegram channel.

Russia blamed Ukraine for the Sevastopol attack. Ukraine has not confirmed that its forces attacked the city, and the extent of damage to Russian vessels is unclear.

Turkey says the deal will resume on Wednesday

After speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the deal would resume at noon Turkish time on Wednesday, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

“After our telephone conversation with Putin yesterday, grain exports will continue as previously planned from noon today,” Erdogan told a party meeting in parliament on Wednesday.

Erdogan will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday about the grain deal, Anadolu reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) during their meeting in Sochi on August 5, 2022.

Turkey, along with the United Nations, cooperated in the negotiations of the agreement last July.

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The agreement established a procedure to ensure the safety of ships carrying grain, fertilizers and other Ukrainian foodstuffs through a humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea. Under the agreement, all ships entering and leaving Ukrainian ports were inspected and monitored by international teams consisting of officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN she was “delighted” to see the deal revived.

“[El acuerdo] feeding the world, so Russia was finally convinced that they had to continue this, they couldn’t get in the way of feeding the whole world,” he told CNN this morning.

World food

Ukraine plays an important role in the global food market, so Russia’s suspension of the deal raised serious concerns at a time when the world was already facing a growing food crisis.

Russia announced that it would return to an agreement to export grain from Ukraine

The Sierra Leonean-flagged cargo ship Razoni left the Odesa regional port on Monday with more than 26,000 tons of Ukrainian grain.

According to the United Nations, Ukraine typically supplies the world with about 45 million tons of grain annually. It is one of the world’s top five exporters of barley, sorghum and wheat. It is also the largest exporter of sunflower oil accounting for 46% of global exports.

In normal times, Ukraine exports three-quarters of the grain it produces. According to European Commission data, about 90% of these exports were previously shipped by sea from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

But when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, it effectively imposed a blockade on ships leaving Ukrainian ports. The impact of war on world food markets is immediate and painful, especially since Ukraine is a major grain supplier to the World Food Program. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a UN body, said 47 million people could be pushed into “severe food insecurity” because of the war.

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The Black Sea Treaty provided much-needed relief. The UN estimates that the deal has indirectly prevented about 100 million people from falling into extreme poverty by lowering the prices of basic food items.

As of Monday, 9.5 million metric tons of food had been exported under the agreement since it took effect in the summer.

Anna Chernova, Hande Ade and Stephanie Halas contributed to this report.