On April 17, Russia again blocked inspections of cargo ships in Turkey that were moving within the Black Sea ‘grain agreement’, Ukraine’s government reports.

Since April 10, the Russian side at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul has unilaterally stopped the registration of ships for the inspection plan.

Instead, the Russians create their own inspection plan, which is contrary to the terms of the Initiative. Therefore, for the second time in the 9 months of the ‘grain initiative’ operation, no inspection plan has been drawn up and not a single ship has been inspected. This jeopardizes the operation of the agreement.

Since November 2022, Russia has been sabotaging and delaying inspections, which has already led to a reduction in the volume of exports of Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets by 15-18 million tons.

Since April 2023, Russian representatives at the Joint Coordination Center have been trying to interfere in the activities of Ukrainian ports and exporters by imposing their own criteria for determining specific cargo ships for the initiative.