April 17, the Russian side for the second time blocked the inspections of vessels in Türkiye
Since April 10, the Russian side has unilaterally stopped the registration of vessels submitted by Ukrainian ports for the formation of an inspection plan. Instead, the Russians form their own inspection plan, choosing vessels from the queue at their discretion. This is completely contrary to the terms of the Initiative and unacceptable to Ukraine. As a result, for the second time in 9 months of work of “Grain Initiative”, they ignored the inspection plan and didn’t inspect a single vessel. This puts the functioning of the “Grain Initiative” at risk.
Since November 2022, the Russians have been sabotaging and delaying inspections under various pretexts. It has already led to a reduction in the volume of exports of Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets by 15-18 million tons.
Since April 2023, Russian representatives are trying to interfere in the activities of Ukrainian ports and exporters by imposing their own criteria for determining specific vessels that will participate in the Initiative. For example, since April 14, the Russians, without any explanation, have refused to register three vessels (2 of which are bound for China), for which cargo is already waiting in port.
In this way, the Russian side is trying to establish control over the number of the loaded fleet and the directions of its work, which is a violation of international norms for the “Grain Initiative”. This is another attempt to use food as a weapon.
Ukraine categorically rejects the next demands of the Russians and opposes interference in the activities of Ukrainian ports.