Ukraine Claims Grain Export Deal to Be Extended by 120 Days

On Thursday, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Aleksandr Kubrakov said he believed the agreement guaranteeing safe passage for ships carrying grain exports from Ukraine would be extended by 120 days.

"The Black Sea grain initiative will be prolonged for 120 days," he wrote on his Twitter.

Kubrakov explained that the decision was taken in Istanbul. As he said, "the UN and Turkey remained the guarantors of the implementation of the initiative." He noted that during the period of the grain deal, Ukraine exported more than 11 million tons of agricultural production to 38 countries.

"We officially appealed to the partners with a proposal to extend the Initiative for 1 year and to include the Nikolayev port in it… We are waiting for [an] official announcement from the leaders of the United Nations and Turkiye," Kubrakov added.

The agreements on Ukraine's food exports for a term of 120 days were concluded on July 22. The deals are valid until November 19 and have been extended for 120 days unless either party (Russia, the United Nations, Ukraine, or Turkey) rejects them.

One of the agreements regulated the procedures for exporting grain from the Kyiv-controlled Black Sea ports of Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny. Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the UN set up a joint coordination center in Istanbul to inspect ships loaded with grain to thwart arms smuggling and prevent provocations.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told reporters earlier that the issue of extending the grain deal had not yet been decided. 

Later, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vershinin at a meeting with the head of the EU mission in Moscow indicated that the terms of the grain deal must be fully complied with.