Vladimir Putin has halted Russia’s participation in the Black Sea grain export deal, the Kremlin said on Monday.
The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict to be safely exported.
It had been extended several times, but was due to expire on Monday. Russia had been saying for months that conditions for its extension had not been fulfilled.
"The Black Sea agreements ceased to be valid today," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
"Unfortunately, the part of these Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not been implemented so far, so its effect is terminated."
The move comes as Putin is under growing pressure due to his floundering war in Ukraine, where Kyiv forces are making limited gains in a summer counter-offensive, and his military having been hit by the failed Wagner Group mutiny, which has been followed by the alleged sacking of several senior Russian commanders.
Moscow has long complained that obstacles remained to its exports of grain and fertiliser, even though these were not directly sanctioned by the West, and presented a series of demands over the deal that it said had not been met.
"As soon as the Russian part of the agreements is fulfilled, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal, immediately," Peskov said.
He insisted that the decision not to renew the deal was unrelated to an overnight attack on the Kerch Bridge between Russia and Crimea.
Over the course of the last year, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has enabled the export in cargo of more than 32 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain.
But these shipments have largely ended because of Russia’s refusal so far to renew the deal.
“No new ships have been approved to participate since 27 June,” according to the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) that oversees the agreement.
Marine experts said that the last cargo ship cleared under the pact previously agreed by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, the Turkish bulk carrier TQ Samsun, was headed on Sunday across the Black Sea from the Ukrainian port of Odesa towards Istanbul.
China and Turkey are the main beneficiaries of the grain shipments, as well as developed economies, according to JCC data.
But it has also helped the World Food Programme to deliver supplies to countries facing critical food shortages such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Yemen.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had been seeking to get the deal renewed, to avert food crises in impoverished nations, and has voiced support for removing hurdles to Moscow exporting fertilisers.
