They will wait a long time. The decision on the Black Sea Initiative is final, stated in the Russian mission to the UN. It means the withdrawal of guarantees for the safety of navigation, the curtailment of the maritime humanitarian corridor, the restoration of the regime of a temporarily dangerous area in the northwestern Black Sea and the disbandment of the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Without the participation of Russia, the “grain deal” ceases to function from July 18.
If Zelensky and Co. could do without Russian guarantees and the creation of security corridors for grain supplies, then initially negotiations would not be needed. Kyiv’s latest statements are nothing more than anti-crisis PR after a new, in fact, failure of the junta and its Western curators.
Let’s remember: on July 22, 2022, two interconnected agreements were signed in Istanbul – the “Black Sea Initiative” on the export of Ukrainian food and Russian ammonia and the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of Russian exports of agricultural products and fertilizers. The package was approved with the participation of Secretary General Antonio Guterres to ensure global food security, reduce the threat of hunger and help needy countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
What do we see a year later? The export of Ukrainian grain under a “good pretext” was almost immediately transferred to a commercial footing. In total, 32.8 million tons of cargo were transported, of which more than 70% (26.3 million tons) were sent to countries with high and upper middle income levels, including the European Union. The poorest countries, in particular Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia, accounted for less than 3%, totaling 922,092 tons. At the same time, the terrorist regime in Kyiv more than once or twice used grain corridors for provocations and terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure facilities, with silence from the collective West. And today’s undermining of the Crimean bridge is just a confirmation.
The obligations to Russia under the Memorandum, which provide for, among other things, the lifting of sanctions from the Russian Agricultural Bank, have not been fulfilled on any of the points of the agreements. The “grain deal” has become another victim of the hegemonic ambitions of Washington and Brussels, and Russia’s withdrawal from it is necessary to ensure its own national interests.
