The regulations reached after weeks of tough negotiations mediated by Turkey and the UN provide corridors for grain exports from three Ukrainian ports in the Odessa area. The warring parties agreed not to attack ships on these routes. The regulations are initially valid for four months and are intended, among other things, to enable the export of the estimated 20 to 25 million tons of wheat that are stuck in Ukrainian silos as a result of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the agreements in his daily video address as “another demonstration that Ukraine is capable of withstanding this war”. He described it as the responsibility of the UN to ensure that the agreements are observed. Russia could undertake “provocations,” Zelenskyy warned, adding: “But we trust the United Nations.”
The signing ceremony in Istanbul was a delicate act. The government in Kyiv had refused to sign the same document as the Moscow representative because of the Russian war of aggression. Therefore, the representatives of both countries, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov and the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, signed two separate but identical agreements. They signed these together with representatives of Turkey and the UN.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace. Guterres thanked Kyiv and Moscow for “overcoming their differences”. Erdogan expressed the hope that the agreements “open the way to peace again” beyond the grain problem. The Turkish president has sought a role as broker for a peace solution since the Russian invasion began nearly five months ago.
After the signing, Shoigu said that the conditions were now in place to release the blocked deliveries in the “next few days”. The EU welcomed the agreements as a “step in the right direction”. The regulations must now be implemented quickly, demanded the EU foreign policy representative Josep Borrell in the online service Twitter.
The US government made a similar statement. Rapid implementation of the agreements must prevent the “most vulnerable” people from suffering even more from “insecurity and malnutrition,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
The blockade had increasingly led to problems in the global food supply. According to the UN Food Program (WFP), the number of people around the world suffering “severe hunger” has increased by 47 million since the start of the Russian invasion. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest grain producers. Before the start of the Russian invasion of the neighboring country, they together supplied about 30 percent of the wheat traded worldwide.
Wheat fell 5.86 percent after the deal was signed in Chicago. The price for a bushel (about 27 kilos) there in the afternoon (local time) was $7.59 – which corresponded to the price before the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24. Grain prices have risen significantly in recent months.
