Ukraine is ready to continue exporting grain to the Black Sea as part of “Plan B” without Russia’s support, if Moscow withdraws from the current agreement and the agreement collapses, Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Friday, citing Reuters.

In July of last year, the United Nations and Turkey acted as mediators between Moscow and Kyiv in concluding the Black Sea Grain Initiative to help resolve the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an important global grain exporter, News.ro reminds.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi told Reuters that Russia has already blocked the use of Ukraine’s main Black Sea port, Yuzhnoye, despite the agreement, and allows only one ship a day to depart and deliver Ukrainian products to some countries.

Russia, for its part, says it will let more ships through only if all parties involved in the grain deal agree to unblock the transit of Russian ammonia for export through a pipeline that crosses Ukraine’s territory to the south.

“The latest actions that took place there during the day yesterday, the day before yesterday, today, speak more about the fact that in fact, only from a legal point of view, this corridor looks like it is working, but in reality it is not. there’s a lot going on there,” Solsky said. “It doesn’t work that way, and then we’ll be ready for plan B, which depends on us, depends on the UN. I don’t think we’ll sit idly by if this continues in the near future “, added the Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture.

What Ukraine offers: “I can have enough confidence”

He suggests that his government could provide insurance guarantees for firms to continue shipping without Russian involvement under the new deal. “Plan B excludes the fourth party (Russia) from these relations,” said Mykola Solsky.

The government in Kyiv has already created a special insurance fund in the amount of 547 million dollars for companies whose ships enter Ukrainian Black Sea ports under the new agreement, the minister said. “If we’re completely locked down, which we almost (already) are in fact, then carriers will be able to go through that corridor with insurance guaranteed by our government,” Solski said.

He also said shipowners can have “fairly high” confidence that the Ukrainian military and its air defenses “can do their job.”

On the other hand, Ukraine still hopes that the current initiative to transport grain through the Black Sea will eventually work, despite the current difficulties, because any new option would require a new agreement or format, the minister said. “Since from a legal point of view the first format works, and we hope for it, we will try to make it work, but if we have nothing to lose, then obviously we will discuss the details of plan B,” said Solsky.

A UN spokesman said on Thursday that Russia had informed officials overseeing the Grain Transport Initiative that Moscow would limit registrations at the Port of Pivdenny until all parties agreed to unblock the transit of Russian ammonia.

Read also:

• The UN is trying to save Ukraine’s Black Sea grain agreement with a “mutually beneficial” proposal
• Lavrov warns the West: the Black Sea grain agreement is at risk of collapse
• Grain supplies from Ukraine across the Black Sea are blocked, despite the extension of the agreement. There are dozens of ships around Istanbul
• Ukraine is trying to include more ports and goods in the Black Sea grain agreement and is ready to make concessions to Russia

___

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro