Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Ukraine Announces Extending Black Sea Grain Deal for 120 days


Sat 18 Mar 2023 | 11:35 PM
Israa Farhan

On Saturday, Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said the "grain deal" has been extended for another 120 days.

“(The Black Sea Grain Initiative) agreement is extended for 120 days,” Kubrakov wrote on Twitter. 

“Grateful to (UN General Secretary Antonio) Guterres, (the) UN, President Erdoğan, Minister Hulusi Akar & all our partners for sticking to the agreements,” he added.

On his part, Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned that the deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports that was due to expire on Saturday has been renewed.

“The deal for the grain corridor was due to expire today. As a result of our talks with the two sides, we have secured an extension to this deal,” Erdogan said in a speech in the western city of Canakkale, without specifying the length of the agreed extension. 

The agreement with Russia and Ukraine was reached by the United Nations and Turkiye in July — and renewed for another 120 days in November — to confront a global food crisis fueled in part by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its February 24, 2022, black naval blockade.

Russia had previously called for renewing the deal for only 60 days, half of the previous renewal period, while Ukraine was insisting on renewing it for a period of 120 days.