Russia Believes Grain Deal Will End on July 18

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin stated earlier that Moscow is considering exiting the grain deal, which is set to expire on July 17.

Russia believes that July 18 will be the day of the grain deal's termination, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Tuesday.

"We continue to have contacts, including working ones. But we will do what we said. That is, we are working to ensure that July 18 is the time for the completion of those agreements that are not being implemented," Vershinin told reporters.

At the same time, Russia does not exclude new face-to-face contacts with the UN on the grain deal, the diplomat added.

Moscow leaves to the discretion of the UN the possibility of continuing work on the memorandum as part of the grain deal in case it is not extended, he said.

The United Nations has admitted that it can do nothing with regard to three of the five key issues Russia wants to be resolved to extend the grain deal, namely, with regard to the restoration of the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, the reconnection of Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to SWIFT and the removal of restrictions on the supply of spare parts for agricultural machinery in Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said.

"These three issues that you have mentioned are very important — the restoration of supplies of ammonia and spare parts [for agricultural machinery], as well as the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT. In fact, unfortunately, the UN representatives admitted during the last consultations that they could do nothing. They even said that there were no such prospects. It is very sad," Vershinin told reporters.

The last round of consultations between Russian and the UN on the grain deal took place in Geneva on June 9.

Russia's demand that the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline be unblocked still stands even though Moscow realizes that its relaunch anytime soon is impossible due to damage caused to it by a recent Ukrainian blast, Vershining added.

"We are not withdrawing this demand, because it is included in the package of general agreements both under the memorandum and the four-party agreements. But at the same time, we understand that after the Ukrainian side of the ammonia pipeline was blown up, there are no real opportunities to quickly proceed with it. Physically, the possibility of a quick launch of the ammonia pipeline has been destroyed by the Kiev regime," Vershinin told reporters.

On June 7, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian sabotage group had blown up the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline in the Kharkiv Region, adding that there were casualties among the civilian population. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later that the explosion would complicate the extension of the grain deal.

Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the UN reached an agreement on July 22, 2022 to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships carrying food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. On May 18, 2023, Russia extended the deal, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, for 60 days, until July 17.

The deal is an integral part of a package agreement. The second part - the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years - envisions the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers, the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, the resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services, the restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and a number of other measures. Moscow says this part of the package agreement has not been implemented yet.