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By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Reuters) – The United Nations is “doing everything possible” to make sure a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports continues, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Friday, a day before the pact is due to expire.
He also said “meaningful progress” had been made on a separate pledge by the United Nations to help facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports, “but impediments remain, notably with regard to payment systems.”
“It is vital for global food security that both of these agreements continue and should be fully implemented,” Griffiths said.
The pact was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey in July – and renewed in November – to combat a global food crisis that was fueled in part by Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of neighboring Ukraine and Black Sea blockade.
Ukraine insists on a 120-day extension of an agreement allowing the safe export of grain from Black Sea ports, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. The deal is set to expire on Saturday.
Before the war Ukraine, sometimes described as the breadbasket of Europe, was the world’s fourth-largest corn exporter and fifth-biggest wheat seller. It supplied mainly poor countries in Africa and the Middle East that depend on grain imports.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Costas Pitas and Grant McCool)
((Costas.Pitas@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: costas.pitas.thomsonreuters@reuters.net and @Cpitas on Twitter))
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