“Russia and Ukraine Extend Grain Agreement to Ensure World Food Security”

It was Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who first announced the news at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon.

This will allow Ukraine to export its agricultural products across the Black Sea without fear of attack by Russian forces. Turkey and the UN are behind the negotiations on the agreement.

Ukraine and Russia are both among the world’s largest food producers, and when Russia carried out its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it contributed to sharply increasing food prices worldwide. The grain agreement has therefore become very important for world food security since it was concluded last summer, and has been extended several times.

This time it was very doubtful whether Russia would agree to extend the agreement without concessions from the West.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says the agreement has now been extended to help the countries that need it, but that they have not changed their mind about the situation.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov says for his part that they welcome the continuation of the agreement, but that it must be implemented effectively and that Russia must not be allowed to use food as a weapon and a means of blackmail.