“Hundreds of millions of people are starving and consumers are facing a global crisis of rising living costs,” Guterres said in remarks to journalists, adding that the Russian decision will “deal a heavy blow to those in need around the world.”
“I deeply regret the decision of the Russian Federation to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative, including the withdrawal of Russian security guarantees for navigation in the Northwest Black Sea,” said the United Nations Secretary-General. on the day it ended. of the agreement.
Guterres defended that participation in this agreement “is a choice”, but recalled that “people struggling everywhere and developing countries have no choice”.
The UN Secretary-General assures that he will not give up on this Russian decision and guarantees that it “will not hinder efforts to facilitate unimpeded access to world markets for agricultural products and fertilizers in both Ukraine and Russia”.
For Guterres, food security and food price stability will remain at the core of his efforts, “taking into account the increase in human suffering, an inevitable consequence of today’s decision.”
Guterres also said he was disappointed that a letter he sent last week to Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to find a solution to this problem was ignored.
The letter, the exact contents of which have not been made public, proposes reconnecting a subsidiary of Russia’s main agricultural bank, whose operations are hampered by the sanctions, to SWIFT’s global banking system, following an agreement to that effect with the European Union. Commission.
While Russia claims that the conditions it has set for the continuation of the grain deal, especially the part related to its own food and fertilizer exports, have not been met, Guterres also insisted in his letter on the need for progress on this area.
Russia today suspended the agreement on the export of grains via the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports, arguing that commitments made with Russia have not been fulfilled.
“The grain deal is on hold,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his daily telephone press conference.
“When the Russia-related part of the Black Sea agreement is fulfilled, Russia will immediately return to the implementation of the agreement,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman said that the attack in recent hours on the main bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland had no role in the decision to suspend the agreement.
Source: DN
