Russia said on Wednesday it was rejoining the deal that guarantees safe passage for ships carrying vital grain exports from Ukraine, a move that may help ease concerns over global food supplies that arose after Moscow suspended participation of the pact last week.
The decision to reverse course and rejoin the deal was announced by Russia’s defense ministry days after Moscow cited drone attacks on the city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea as the reason for its withdrawal from the agreement.
“The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received at the moment seem sufficient and is resuming the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its official Telegram channel.
Russia blamed Ukraine for the attacks in Sevastopol. Ukraine has not confirmed that its forces attacked the city, and the extent of damage to Russian naval vessels remains unclear.
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.
Turkey, along with the United Nations, helped broker the deal in July.
The agreement put in place a process that guarantees the safety of ships carrying Ukrainian grain, fertilizer and other food through a humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea. Under the agreement, all ships coming to and from Ukrainian ports were inspected and monitored by international teams consisting of officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN.
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN she was “delighted” the deal was resurrected.
“[The deal] provides the necessary food for the world, so clearly Russia has finally been convinced that it has to continue this, it can’t stand in the way of feeding the whole world,” he told CNN This Morning.
Ukraine plays a key role in the global food market, so Russia’s suspension of the deal has sparked major concerns about the global food supply – at a time when the world is already facing a growing hunger crisis.
According to the UN, Ukraine normally supplies the world with about 45 million tons of grain each year. It ranks among the top five global exporters of barley, corn and wheat. It is also by far the largest exporter of sunflower oil, accounting for 46% of global exports.
In normal times, Ukraine would export about three-quarters of the grain it produces. About 90% of these exports were previously shipped by sea from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, according to European Commission data.
But when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, it effectively imposed a blockade on ships leaving Ukrainian ports. The impact of the war on world food markets was imminent and extremely painful, especially since Ukraine is a major supplier of grain to the World Food Programme. The Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN body, said up to 47 million people could be pushed into “acute food insecurity” because of the war.
The Black Sea Agreement provided much needed relief. The UN estimates that the reduction in staple food prices as a result of the agreement has indirectly prevented about 100 million people from falling into extreme poverty.
He added that as of Monday, more than 9.5 million metric tons of food had been exported under the agreement since it came into force in the summer.
