Ukraine has not received a response to its request, a source in the country’s government told Reuters. The grain deal expires on March 18.
Ukraine has appealed to the UN and Turkey to start negotiations on the extension of the grain deal, which expires in March, Reuters reports, citing a source in the country’s government.
“We have sent a letter with a request to start considering this issue, since the date of completion of the transaction on March 18 is very soon, but so far we have not received any feedback,” the agency interlocutor said.
Ukraine also wants Mykolaiv
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on February 25 has already called on the parties to extend the agreements after March 2023. Three days earlier, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov said that Kyiv intends to offer to extend the deal not for 120 days, as it was done before, but for a year. In addition, Ukraine wants to include the ports of Mykolaiv in the agreement.
Moscow and Kyiv, with the mediation of Ankara and the UN, concluded a grain deal in July last year. The agreement included two parts: an agreement on the safe export of Ukrainian grain from Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny; lifting restrictions on the access of Russian agricultural products to the world market.
The Russian side has repeatedly noted that the first part of the deal is respected, and the second part is not. However, Moscow pointed out that there are still achievements in solving this problem. On February 27, RIA Novosti, citing a source, reported that Turkey and the UN expected guarantees from the West that there would be no obstacles to the export of Russian agricultural products and ammonia as part of the grain deal. The agency’s interlocutor pointed out that this “will help the smooth operation of the Black Sea grain initiative.”
The original deal was valid until November 19 last year, parties agreed to extend it two days before the expiration of the agreement.