The Black Sea Grain Transfer Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July between Russia and Ukraine, is part of efforts to alleviate the global food crisis exacerbated by the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The initiative concerns three Ukrainian ports, but the United Nations said that no ship had been granted permission to sail to the Ukrainian port of Pivdenye since April 29.
The international organization said in a statement that it and Turkey were “working closely with the rest of the parties with the aim of fully resuming operations (…) and removing all obstacles that hinder operations and limit the scope of the initiative”.
Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of virtually excluding the port of Bivdenye from the initiative, as Russia complains it cannot export ammonia through a pipeline to Bivdenye under the deal .
The United Nations said on Friday the deal also included fertilizer exports, including ammonia, but “there are no such exports yet.”
As part of this initiative, the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, made up of Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and United Nations officials, authorizes ships to sail and carries out inspections for them before heading to and after leaving the Ukrainian ports.
The UN said the center did not register any new ships on Thursday, but it agreed to register two ships today, Friday, noting that there are 13 ships currently loaded in Ukrainian ports, including six in the port of Chornomorsk. and seven in the port of Odessa.
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