Negotiations will start in a week on extending an UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on 17 February, Reuters reports.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the UN and Türkiye last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports of the Greater Odesa area. The agreement is up for renewal again in March, but Russia says it wants sanctions affecting its agricultural exports to be lifted.
“Negotiations on extending the grain corridor will begin in a week and then we will understand the positions of all parties,” Ukrainian Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said during a grain conference in Kyiv, according to Reuters.
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