Black Sea Grain Initiative prolonged by 120 days

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine, announced the extension of the Grain Initiative for 120 days.

He wrote about it on Twitter.

Kubrakov thanked UN Secretary General António Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdoğan, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and all partners for adhering to the agreements and extending it for another four months.

#BlackSeaGrainInitiative agreement is extended for 120 days. Grateful to @antonioguterres @UN, President Erdoğan, Minister Hulusi Akar & all our partners for sticking to the agreements. Due our joint efforts, 25M tons of🇺🇦 grain delivered to world markets pic.twitter.com/4bye93iQ7d

— Oleksandr Kubrakov (@OlKubrakov) March 18, 2023

He added that thanks to the joint efforts of Ukraine's partners, 25 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain have been delivered to world markets.

The day before, the Russian side stated that it "does not object" to the continuation of the grain initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian food by sea, but only for 60 days.

Background: 

Ukraine declares that Russia's position on extending the grain initiative for 60 days instead of 120 days contradicts the documents signed in cooperation with the UN and Turkey.

The contract for the export of Ukrainian grain through the Russian-controlled Black Sea expires on 18 March.

Earlier, media reported that Ukraine started online negotiations with partners regarding the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, aimed at ensuring that Kyiv can continue supplying grain to world markets.

The initiative was launched with the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey last July, and was extended in November.

Russia has stated that it would agree to the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative only if the interests of its own agricultural producers are taken into account.

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