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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Tuesday of violating the international Istanbul agreement by preventing the export of Russian grain and fertilizer through the Black Sea.
Our Western colleagues are not doing what the UN Secretary-General promised us [António Guterres]”, Lavrov said at a news conference.
The Russian minister accused Western countries of refusing to take steps to “lift logistical sanctions that obstruct free access to (Russian) grain and fertilizers on the world market.”
Lavrov stressed that Moscow is working with the UN to fully comply with the agreements reached in July in Istanbul, which created a maritime corridor from the Ukrainian coast – which was blocked by the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 – to the Mediterranean for export of Ukrainian cereals.
The agreement, sealed with the mediation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also included the supply of Russian cereals and fertilizers through the Bosphorus Strait.
Several dozen ships carrying Ukrainian products left the ports. from Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny, located on the Black Sea.
Russia – which turned the Sea of Azov into an inland ocean by seizing the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk – maintains that its export capacity far exceeds Ukraine’s, making its supplies crucial to averting a global food crisis.
Some countries, especially African ones, have called for the lifting of sanctions affecting Russia’s grain exports.
Source: Observadora
