UN, Turkey Say There's a Deal to End Ukraine Grain Impasse

Secretary-general arrives in Istanbul for signing ceremony, barring complications
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 13, 2022 6:15 PM CDT
Updated Jul 21, 2022 6:55 PM CDT
UN Sees Signs of Hope in Breaking Ukraine Grain Impasse
A farmer looks at his burning field during fighting in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Monday, July 4, 2022.   (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Update: UN officials said Thursday they expect Russia and Ukraine to officially resolve their standoff over grain shipments on Friday, while adding a diplomatic caution. And Turkey announced that a signing ceremony would be held Friday, though Ukraine and Russia didn't immediately confirm those plans, the New York Times reports. Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Istanbul on Thursday night; the UN would be a signatory. A UN official said the two sides reached an agreement, though a last-minute snag is always a possibility, per the Wall Street Journal. Our story from July 13 follows:

With an estimated 22 million tons of grain stuck in Ukraine because of the war, the country is trying to find a way to get it out through the Black Sea without letting Russian invaders in. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul Wednesday to discuss a United Nations plan supported by Turkey. Some officials feared that breaking the impasse could be "Mission Impossible," the New York Times reports, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there was a "critical step forward" in talks. A Russian naval blockade has halted shipments of grain and other agricultural products and both sides have deployed sea mines, with Ukraine seeking to deter invasion, reports the BBC. If the issue isn't resolved soon, Ukrainian farmers will have nowhere to store their summer crop.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, told the AP before the negotiations Wednesday—the first face-to-face talks between the two sides in months—that if corridors to allow exports are opened, Ukraine will seek assurances that Russia "will respect these corridors, they will not sneak into the harbor and attack ports or that they will not attack ports from the air with their missiles." Vladimir Putin has pledged that Odesa and other Ukrainian sea ports will not be attacked through Black Sea corridors, though the Ukrainian side notes that Putin also denied that he was planning to invade Ukraine in the first place. Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing and selling grain from occupied areas.

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Ukraine is seeking a mechanism to ensure Russia doesn't use the Black Sea to ship stolen grain to global markets, while Russia says it should have the right to check vessels to make sure they're not shipping weapons. The European Union has been helping Ukraine move some of its grain by rail and river barge, but exports are still more than 5 million tons a month below usual levels, which has been adding to the world food crisis, especially in developing countries that have long relied on Ukrainian exports, the Times reports. Guterres said Wednesday that "more technical work will now be needed" before any agreement can be signed, but he's now "optimistic." (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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