"Grain deal" by the end of the term almost came to naught, inspections are rare

The rate of dispatch of ships with grain under the "grain deal" decreased significantly in July compared to previous months, according to the calculations of RIA Novosti.

As of Friday, July 14, since the beginning of July, the Coordination Center has carried out inspections of only 11 ships with grain that arrived in Istanbul, of which only one went to a low-income country - the Ruby-T ship took sunflower oil to Ethiopia , follows from the data published by the Coordinating Center.

Thus, the situation in July did not change much compared to the entire duration of the deal - over the year, low-income countries, which include Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, received 2.5% of the food transported under the deal - slightly more than 822 thousand tons out of more than 33 million.

In July, an average of 1.3 inspections per day are carried out, while in September-October 2022, the center conducted about 10-11 inspections.

In total, since the beginning of July, only seven dry cargo ships have left Ukrainian ports: 187,000 tons of cargo were on board ships leaving the port of Chornomorsk, another 65,000 tons from Odessa. These figures are several times less than the previous months: in June, more than two million tons of cargo were transported as part of the initiative, and in the record-breaking October 2022, more than 4.2 million tons.

Two ships with grain are planned to be sent from Ukraine to Turkey in the days remaining before the end of the grain deal: an inspection of a dry cargo ship is scheduled for Saturday, another ship is being loaded in the port of Odessa at the moment, Ismini Palla, spokeswoman for the UN transaction coordinator, told RIA Novosti on Friday.

Also, as follows from the data of the Coordination Center, since June 28, not a single vessel under the initiative has arrived in Ukrainian ports.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said on June 21 that there are no prerequisites for extending the grain deal, since obligations towards Russia are not being fulfilled. The grain deal expires on July 17. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have the same opinion on extending the grain corridor.

The Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, involves the export of Ukrainian grain and food, as well as fertilizers across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The coordination of vessel traffic is handled by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Putin pointed out that the West exports most of the Ukrainian grain to their own states, and not to the needy African countries.

The grain initiative is an integral part of the package agreement. The second part - the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years - provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers, among the main tasks were 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. As noted in Moscow, this part of the package agreement has not yet been implemented.