The Russian government announced on Tuesday its return to the agreement signed with Ukraine to guarantee the export of grain, after breaking it last weekend in retaliation for an attack on its fleet in the Black Sea.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has considered “sufficient” the guarantees received from the UN and Turkey, so that the Ukrainian forces do not use this agreement to carry out military operations against Russia, according to the Interfax news agency.
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also confirmed Moscow’s return to the agreement, who after speaking on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, plans to do so on Wednesday with the Ukrainian, Volodimir Zelenski, to complete the round.
Erdogan explained that, after speaking with Putin, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, to announce that “grain transport will continue as agreed,” according to the ‘Daily Sabah’ newspaper. ‘.
Despite the breakdown of the agreement, the ships had continued to set sail in recent days from Ukrainian ports – three of them on Tuesday -. Moscow warned of the risk of maintaining these operations, implying that now there were no security guarantees in the face of a conflict that has continued to escalate in recent weeks.
The agreement has allowed the export of almost 10 million tons since July. The UN relied on this pact to improve food security worldwide, to the extent that the outbreak of the conflict in February resulted in a break in the supply chain and a rise in prices that has particularly affected developing countries.
