Russia offers to replace Ukrainian grain with its own after withdrawing from the grain agreement

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SATURDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2022, 23:40

After stopping the country's participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative [an agreement brokered by the UN with Russia and Turkey launched on 22 July to enable ships to transport grain from Ukraine - ed.], the Russian Ministry of Agriculture has announced that Russia is ready to completely replace Ukrainian grain on the world market.

Source: Dmitry Patrushev, Head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, according to information from Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti and Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza.

Quote from Patrushev: "Taking into account the current year's harvest, the Russian Federation is ready to completely replace Ukrainian grain and to make deliveries at acceptable prices to all interested countries."

"Given that Russia has always been and remains a reliable partner and is ready to provide the world with the necessary amount of food, our country is ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to the poorest countries free of charge in the next four months. In particular, we will do this with the participation of our reliable partner – Turkey."

Details: Patrushev also stated that the grain agreement "not only failed to solve the problems of the countries in need, but even aggravated them in a certain sense", since ships from Ukraine were allegedly mainly destined for Europe, which was repeatedly denied by representatives of Ukraine.

Background: 

• On 29 October, Russia announced the suspension of its participation in the implementation of the "grain agreement" allegedly because of a "terrorist attack" in the Sevastopol Bay on Saturday morning.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia had found a pretext to withdraw from the "grain agreement", and called on the world powers to demand that the Russian Federation stop playing hunger games and return to its commitments.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects a strong international reaction to the suspension of Russia's participation in the "grain agreement", in particular from the UN and the G20.

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