Ukraine urges UN and Türkiye to exert pressure on russia for blocking grain deal

Ukraine calls on the UN and Turkey to demand that the russian federation immediately end using food as a weapon and artificial delays in the operation of the Black Sea grain corridor.

Deputy Prime Minister for Ukraine's Reconstruction, Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, said this in the statement.

"Ukraine is deeply concerned about the destructive actions of the russian federation, which result in the delay of the work of the Black Sea grain corridor, obstructing the Black Sea Grain Initiative in general, shipping in the Black Sea and free access of food to world markets," the statement emphasizes.

The officials noted that the russians, as part of the inspection groups at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, have been systematically delaying the inspection of ships going through the Bosphorus to and from Ukrainian ports for several months in a row.

"Besides that, Russian inspectors intentionally slow down the terms of inspections. They often demand unregulated documentation, refuse to work during working hours, and look for other groundless reasons to stop the inspection. Every day only half of the planned 10 inspections take place," the ministers added.

Such a destructive policy of russia led to a systematic decrease in freight turnover within the "grain initiative." The world has not received 10 million tons of Ukrainian food in the last three months alone. Moreover, this negative trend is gaining momentum.

A queue of more than 140 ships has already formed in the Bosphorus due to the delay in inspections by russia. The vast majority wait there for more than a month. In this way, the food security of countries dependent on Ukrainian agricultural products has been threatened.

"First of all, due to russia's actions, the countries of the Global South, in particular Africa and Asia, have food shortages," the statement said.

Moreover, by destroying Ukraine's port infrastructure, moscow is taking advantage of the opportunity for unhindered commercial shipping from russian Black Sea ports.

"The traffic volume through russian seaports in the Azov and Black seas has reached more than 250 million tons in 2022, which surpassed the indicators of 2021. 

"At the same time, inspections of these vessels in the Bosporus are not held. All that makes it possible for russia to use its commercial vessels for receiving military goods in order to continue the war against Ukraine," the development minister and foreign minister noted.

Government officials called on Turkey and the UN to influence russia's actions.

"We call on the international community, in particular, the UN and Türkiye as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand from the russian federation to immediately stop the delays in the work of the Black Sea grain corridor, to stop russia's attempts to use food as a weapon and to unblock commercial navigation to the Ukrainian Black Sea ports," Kubrakov and Kuleba summarized.