Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN have reached an agreement in principle in Turkey to resolve the Ukrainian grain crisis blocked in Black Sea ports. Antonio GuterresSecretary General of the United Nations, has celebrated that “an important and substantial step towards a complete agreement” has been taken.
The president added that “it will still be necessary more technical work to materialize the progress of this Wednesday, but the momentum is clear. In the end, the goal of the parties is not only an agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, but an agreement for the world.”
The Turkish Government has also announced that there have been some technical agreements between the two countries to unblock and that they will hold new meetings next week. Turkey has been the host of the meeting, which has lasted three hours.
The Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, pointed out that the meeting held in a mansion in Istanbul has been an “important step” to contribute to the solution of the food crisis. The representative added that agreements have been reached regarding the basic technical aspectssuch as the creation of a coordination center in the Turkish capital, joint controls at the points of departure and destination of the ports and the guarantee of the safety of navigation on the transfer routes.
Akar has stated that “the parties are ready to solve this problem”. He added that the objective of these meetings is “to reach a conclusion” with “coordination with the UN”. For this reason, both delegations have agreed to meet next week in Turkey.
The control of the ships, the biggest stumbling block
According to the observers of the meeting, the greatest point of friction between the parties is the control of ships on their way to Ukraine. The Kremlin wants record them to prevent them from transporting armas to Ukraine, something that kyiv strongly rejects.
The Ukrainians demand security guarantees to protect themselves from the Russian offensive if they agree to withdraw the sea mines that they placed to protect their ports, where there are more than 20 million tons of cereals and sunflower seeds that cannot go to international markets. To this we must add that the crisis is aggravated by that of the fertilizers that were no longer exported after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense did not reveal the content of the proposals
The UN is trying to ensure that these sales can be resumed without hindrance in order to alleviate the sharp increase in prices in food markets, where both Russia and Ukraine play a key role, especially for poor countries from Africa and the Middle East. The Defense Ministry did not reveal the content of the proposals, although other Russian sources pointed out that the process to resume the export of Ukrainian grain could last a month if Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN reach an agreement.
“There is an understanding that this process will not be quick, but there is also a general desire that it not take more than a month,” the source told RIA Novosti, Russia’s other official news agency. Last June, Ukraine managed to export about 2.5 million tons of agricultural products through the available logistics routes, when the need amounts to about eight million tons per month.
This week, after recently recovering the strategic snake island, on the Black Sea, Ukraine managed to use the Bystroye estuary, at the mouth of the Danube, to export part of the grain from the ports of Izmail, Reni and Ust-Dunaisk. Previously, the global shipping companies they were to use the Romanian channel of Sulina.
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