World food prices could rise by 15% due to Russian blockade of “grain deal”

Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yur Vaskov said this in an interview with The Guardian, Ukrinform reports. 

According to the interview, as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, representatives of Russia, Turkey and the UN inspect ships on their way to and from Ukrainian ports. The joint commission agrees on the ships' names which they are going to inspect. However, according to Vaskov, no inspections took place on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian side submitted the names of three bulk carriers, as provided by the agreement. But the Russians crossed out these names and submitted other vessels from the current queue of 50 ships. As a result, not a single vessel has been able to continue its journey, which is a de facto blockade from the Russian side.

"Today we have a critical situation. Russians have viated the terms of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. They decided to unilaterally change the plans of Ukrainian ports. This is unacceptable," Vaskov said.

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If Russia continues its actions, world food prices are likely to rise by 15%, Vaskov warned. According to him, Ukrainian farmers will be forced to stockpile grain again, as they did last summer, and will face serious financial problems. He added that Kyiv urgently raised the issue of Russia's actions with the UN and Turkey on Tuesday.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the "grain deal" was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia. The first ship with Ukrainian food left the port of Odesa on August 1. On November 17, 2022, the agreement was extended for another 120 days, until March 18, 2023. 

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On March 18, Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine eksandr Kubrakov announced that the grain deal would be extended for another 120 days. Russia, in turn, claimed that the agreement could only be extended only for 60 days. The UN confirmed the extension of the agreement but did not name the period that had been agreed upon.