Russia claimed Wednesday that Ukraine is sabotaging the Black Sea grain agreement by asking for bribes from ship owners to register new ships and conduct inspections under the guise of the deal that the United Nations is hoping will alleviate a worldwide food shortage.
There was no immediate comment on the allegation, leveled by Russia's Foreign Ministry, from Ukraine, which has blamed Moscow for problems with the agreement. Moscow did not immediately provide documentary evidence to back its assertion.
Russia and Ukraine both say the deal, brokered by Türkiye and the U.N. in July, is in danger of collapsing just as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have imposed import bans on Ukrainian grain.
Russia has repeatedly warned it will not renew the deal beyond May 18 unless the West agrees to lift a host of restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance, which are hindering its agricultural exports.
Kyiv and the U.N. say the deal has another 60 days to run and is seeking an agreement to ensure it continues.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which oversees the deal, was experiencing difficulties registering new vessels and inspections.
The problems were caused "solely as a result of the actions of Ukrainian representatives, as well as U.N. representatives, who do not want or cannot resist them," she said.
In the same statement, Zakharova accused Ukraine of "trying to exploit the 'Black Sea initiative' as much as possible, not refraining from abuses of the rules of procedure or demands for bribes from ship owners. All for the sake of maximizing commercial profits."
She said that ship owners who refused to pay a bribe to Ukrainians were forced to wait for more than a month while they waited for registration.
And Russian proposals to add vessels carrying grain to African countries in need had been "met with hostility" by Ukrainian representatives, she said, who then stopped inspections for 27 outgoing ships carrying 1.2 million tons of cargo.
"The calculation is simple – to launch a propaganda machine with the help of Westerners and the U.N. and again 'play the food card,'" Zakharova said.
For its part, Kyiv said Russian inspectors this week stopped letting through vessels supposed to ship grain from Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said inspections of ships were resuming as of Wednesday. He wrote on Facebook that "ship inspections are being resumed, despite the R.F.'s (Russian Federation's) attempts to disrupt the agreement."
The Russian news agency RIA said inspections had already resumed after two days of talks, citing the U.N. coordinator's press office.
Kubrakov is in Türkiye to discuss the status of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
JCC spokesperson Ismini Palla confirmed the resumption of inspections. The sides have agreed on new vessels to participate in the initiative and "inspections teams are already at work," Palla said Wednesday.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said on Wednesday Moscow was increasing difficulties for Ukraine at a time when three eastern European countries have banned imports of Ukrainian grain and food products.
"The Russians could not fail to take advantage of these nuances on the western (Ukrainian) border," Solsky told reporters.
RIA quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying Ukraine and the U.N. were causing difficulties with the ship inspections.
Ukraine and Poland reached an agreement on Tuesday to unblock the transit of Ukrainian grain from Friday, but the import bans remain in place in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's key agricultural producers and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil markets. Russia is also dominant in the fertilizer market.
Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched on Feb. 24, last year, something Moscow calls a "special military operation."
Russia's food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned. But Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance amount to a barrier to shipments it wants to be lifted.
