A senior European Union official urged Russia to renew a deal to allow the safe export of Ukrainian grain through Black Sea ports after Russia quit the agreement last month.
European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Saturday that Russian restrictions on the shipping of Ukrainian grains via the Black Sea were creating problems not only for Kyiv but for many developing countries as well.
Russia is using “grain as a weapon”, said Dombrovskis, who is in India to participate in a G20 trade ministers’ meeting.
“We support all efforts by United Nations, by Turkey on Black Sea grain initiative,” he told reporters, adding the bloc was providing alternative trading routes, also called solidarity lanes, to Ukraine for grain and other exports.
Türkiye has been trying to persuade Moscow to return to the agreement, which was brokered by Ankara and the United Nations a year ago and which ended last month.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for renewing the deal on his trip to Kyiv on Friday, saying there’s no other viable alternative to keeping the crucial food supply chain intact
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday that Russia will return to the deal only if the West fulfills its obligations to Moscow.
So far, some 45 million tonnes of grain, oil seeds and related products have been exported through alternative routes via Poland and Romania, providing an important lifeline to Ukraine, Dombrovskis said.
