The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine appealed to the UN and Turkey to stop the Russian Federation’s attempts to block the operation of the ‘grain corridor’.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and the Deputy Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov made a joint statement regarding the situation.

‘Ukraine is deeply concerned about the destructive actions of the Russian Federation, which lead to the delay of the operation of the grain corridor through the Black Sea and undermine the Black Sea Grain Initiative in general, hinder navigation in the Black Sea and free access of food to world markets’, the statement says.

For several months, Russian representatives as part of the inspection groups at the Coordination Center in Istanbul have been systematically delaying the inspection of ships heading across the Bosphorus to or from Ukrainian ports.

‘In particular, Russian inspectors deliberately slow down inspection deadlines, regularly demand non-regulated documentation, refuse to work during working hours and look for other unjustified reasons to stop inspections. As a rule, less than half of the planned 10 inspections take place each day.’

Over the past three months, African and Asian countries have not received 10 million tons of Ukrainian grain. The ministers emphasized that the trend is gaining momentum.

‘We call on the international community, in particular the UN and Turkey as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand from the Russian Federation an immediate end to artificial delays in the work of the ‘grain corridor’ in the Black Sea, to stop Russia’s attempts to use food as a weapon, and to unblock commercial shipping to Ukrainian Black Sea ports’, the statement concludes.