Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Russian Foreign Ministry Pyotr Ilyichev considered that “Moscow does not consider it necessary to involve third countries to escort ships with grain from Ukraine,” and Ilyichev added, commenting on the work of the Coordination Center in Istanbul. And that “representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, and the mechanism monitors the movement of goods and coordinates the inspection of ships.”

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Ukraine (the city of Lviv in western Ukraine), on Friday the Secretary-General is expected to visit the Ukrainian port of Odessa, and the next day he will visit the Joint Focal Point in Istanbul, established as part of the food deal.

On June 22, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN signed a document in Istanbul on the initiative for the safe shipment of grain and food from Ukrainian ports, which provides for the export of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea to the world through a safe maritime corridor.