Türkiye announced on Tuesday the Black Sea grain corridor has been made operational again thanks to the country's efforts, after Ukraine claimed Russia effectively stopped the landmark deal by refusing to register incoming vessels.
Remarks by Defense Ministry sources, reported by Anadolu Agency (AA), come a day before a new high-level meeting on the pact that is reportedly set to take place in Istanbul.
The United Nations and Türkiye brokered the Black Sea export agreement in July last year, allowing the safe shipment of Ukraine grain to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the U.N. make up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the deal.
The U.N. separately said no ships were inspected on Sunday or Monday under the initiative, which Moscow threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports.
Ukrainian Black Sea ports were blockaded after Russia's invasion last year, but access to three of them was cleared under the pact last July.
Ukraine's reconstruction ministry on Monday suggested that Russia has effectively stopped the deal by refusing to register incoming vessels.
"This approach contradicts the terms of the current agreement," the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday, the U.N. said nearly 30 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs had been exported from Ukraine under the corridor.
The shipments included almost 600,000 metric tons of grain in World Food Programme (WFP) vessels for aid operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.
Ukraine had been putting forward daily a list of ships to be authorized by the JCC. Once approved, ships are inspected by JCC officials near Türkiye before traveling to a Ukrainian Black Sea port via a maritime humanitarian corridor to collect their cargo and return to Turkish waters for a final inspection.
"The JCC conducted no inspections yesterday and today," the U.N. said on Monday, adding that the U.N. and Türkiye were "working closely with all sides with the aim to facilitate movements and inspections of inbound and outbound vessels ... while discussions for the future of the Initiative continue."
New high-level meeting
In a separate statement on its social media account, the Defense Ministry confirmed that Türkiye, Russia, Ukraine and United Nations would hold negotiations on the deal on May 10-11.
The meeting was also reported by RIA news agency, which quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying that senior officials from the four parties are due to meet in Istanbul on Wednesday and Thursday.
Russia has said it will not extend the pact beyond its expiration date on May 18 unless a list of demands is met to remove obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports.
To help convince Russia to allow Ukraine to resume Black Sea grain exports, a three-year pact was also struck in July 2022 in which the U.N. agreed to help Moscow facilitate those shipments.
While those Russian exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.
In an excerpt of a letter seen by Reuters last month, Russia told its JCC counterparts it will not approve any new vessels to take part in the Black Sea deal unless the transits will be done by May 18 – "the expected date of ... closure."
Ukraine has said that 62 vessels are waiting to travel to its ports, of which eight have been put forward for JCC authorization, the U.N. said on Monday. The JCC has not agreed to any new authorizations for the past several days.
When it comes to inspections of already authorized ships, the U.N. said there were currently 26 outbound vessels loaded with more than 1.1 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs waiting in Turkish waters.
There were 14 vessels in the Ukrainian ports loading some 600,000 metric tons of grain and foodstuffs, the U.N. said, while another three ships – two outbound and one inbound – were in transit. Those 17 ships would also need to be inspected when they returned to Turkish waters.
The Black Sea export deal also provided for the export of fertilizer, including ammonia, but there had been no such exports so far, the United Nations said.