Grain shipments in the Black Sea will resume, says Turkey.
Turkey’s president said Wednesday that he had secured Moscow’s commitment to resurrect a deal to protect Ukrainian grain shipments, which has been crucial to sustaining food supplies to developing nations.
The deal, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July to guarantee the safe passage of cargo ships to and from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports after Russia’s invasion disrupted export operations
The grain shipment will continue, as previously planned, as a new piece of good news was announced by the president.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the resurrection of the deal on Wednesday, saying that the United Nations and Turkey had helped get written guarantees not to use the grain corridor for military action against Russia.
The Russian Federation believes that the guarantees received for the time being seem sufficient and that the implementation of the agreement will resume. The statement refers to the bombing of ships as a terrorist attack.
Russian President Putin confirmed the reversal on Wednesday, saying that the Russian Defense Ministry had been instructed to participate in the grain deal.
Russia has the right to pull out of the agreement if the guarantees made by Ukraine are violated. Russia is ready to transfer all Ukrainian grain to the poor countries free of charge even in the case of a withdrawal, he said on the conference call.
Moscow abandoned the grain deal because it blamed Ukraine for an attack on its naval fleet in the Black Sea.
Russia said Saturday that it had halted its participation in the deal because it couldn’t guarantee the safety of civilian ships.
The U.N.’s ambassador to the UN is Amir Abdulla. The person in charge of the deal thanked Turkey for its mediation and welcomed Russia’s return to the initiative.
Abdulla wrote that he was looking forward to working with all parties.
A recent Russian proposal to turn Turkey into a natural gas hub for Europe was confirmed by Erdogan during Wednesday’s speech.
Turkey has become a hub for natural gas and energy, according to the Turkish president.
Turkish and Russian ministries were working on the issue of natural gas at a technical level, according to comments from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday.
European nations that long relied on Russian natural gas supplies have largely halted their purchases in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin sought Turkey’s help in sustaining some transmission of gas to customers in the West.
During a meeting in Kazakhstan in mid-October, Erdogan and Putin said that they had instructed their respective energy authorities to immediately begin the technical work on establishing the hub.
Turkey is a NATO member that depends heavily on Russia for its energy needs and tourism.
Turkey has maintained close ties with both countries, notably supplying Ukraine with the Bayraktar TB2 drones, which were used against Russian forces during the war.
The British government said on Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on four more Russian billionaires because they were supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, who previously owned stakes in Russian steel manufacturer Evraz and control global fortunes estimated at $4.7 billion and $1.9 million respectively, as well as property in the U.K., were among those recently under sanctions.
The U.K. is situated in the United Kingdom. James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, stated in a government statement that Putin relied on his group of the elite to maintain control of his industrial complex and fuel the war in Ukraine.
Cleverly said they are ramping up the economic pressure on Putin by targeting these individuals.
The U.K. has four additional additions on Wednesday. According to the statement, has imposed sanctions on more than 1,200 individuals and 120 entities, including more than 120 billionaires with a net worth of more than $170 billion.
Russian occupation officials in the southern Kherson region said they had relocated some 70,000 residents of the regional capital city to the east bank of the Dnieper River in anticipation of further Ukrainian military advances and a potential offensive to seize Kherson city.
