Russia suspends the grain deal

Russia has withdrawn from the grain initiative.

Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov announced this.

"The Black Sea agreements have actually terminated today. As the Russian President said earlier, the term expires on July 17," Peskov said.

The spokesman said that some of the agreements concerning Russia were allegedly not fulfilled. Therefore, the agreement is terminated.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between the UN, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Russia on sea corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain. The agreement was signed on July 22, 2022.

Russia has repeatedly disrupted the agreement. In October 2022, Russia blocked 175 ships near the Bosphorus Strait.

Since mid-April 2023, Russia has been restricting the work of the grain initiative, and since May, it has effectively blocked it by refusing to register a new fleet and conducting inspections of the fleet that is being loaded at Ukrainian ports.

The last time the grain deal was extended for two months was in May 2023.

The Russian side said it would return to the agreement as soon as its terms are met.

These include reconnecting Rosselkhozbank (Russian Agricultural Bank) to the SWIFT payment system, unblocking transport logistics and insurance, resuming the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, and unblocking foreign assets and foreign companies.

Illustrative photo