Final agreement possible on resuming Ukraine grain exports following talks, says UN chief

UN secretary general António Guterres said that an “important and substantive step” was made towards a comprehensive deal to resume Black Sea exports of Ukraine grain after talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and UN officials on Wednesday.

“Next week, hopefully, we’ll be able to have a final agreement. But, as I said, we still need a lot of goodwill and commitments by all parties,” he told reporters in New York.

He said that although Ukraine and Russia had engaged, “for peace we still have a long way to go.”

In a statement, Turkey’s minister for defence Hulusi Akar said the talks had resulted in an agreement to form a co-ordination centre to ensure the safety of routes. He said the agreement would be signed next week when all parties meet again, adding the parties had agreed on joint controls for checking grains at harbours.

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The war has trapped about 22 million tons of grain inside Ukraine, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in Istanbul as they scrambled for a solution that would empty the silos in time for the upcoming harvest in Ukraine. Some grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river but the amount is small compared with the Black Sea routes.

Speaking before the talks, Ukrainian minister for foreign affairs Dmytro Kuleba told the Associated Press that grain exports from his country’s ports would not resume without security guarantees to ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation.

Any agreement needs to ensure that Russia “will respect these corridors, they will not sneak into the harbour and attack ports or that they will not attack ports from the air with their missiles”, he said.

He also ruled out ceding territory to Russia as part of any peace deal and said no peace talks were under way between Moscow and Kyiv.

“The objective of Ukraine in this war... is to liberate our territories, restore our territorial integrity, and full sovereignty in the east and south of Ukraine,” he told a briefing. “This is the end point of our negotiating position.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials have traded accusations over the stuck grain shipments. Moscow claims Ukraine’s heavily mined ports are causing the delay. Russian president Vladimir Putin has pledged that Moscow would not use the corridors to launch an attack, if the sea mines were removed.

Ukrainian officials have blamed a Russian naval blockade for holding up exports and causing the global food crisis. They remained sceptical of Mr Putin’s pledge not to take advantage of cleared Black Sea corridors to mount an attack, noting that he insisted earlier this year he had no plans to invade Ukraine.

In advance of the talks, a senior Russian diplomat said Moscow was willing to ensure safe navigation for ships to carry grain from Ukrainian ports but would press for its right to check the vessels for weapons.

Pyotr Ilyichev, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for ties with international organisations, said Russia’s military had repeatedly declared its willingness to allow safe shipping corridors in the Black Sea.

He said 70 vessels from 16 countries have remained stuck in Ukrainian ports, alleging that Ukrainian authorities had barred them from departing.

“Our conditions are clear: We need to have a possibility to control and check the ships to prevent any attempts to smuggle weapons in, and Kyiv must refrain from any provocations,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Mr Ilyichev as saying.

Meanwhile, Russian artillery and rockets pounded the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut on Wednesday morning in what some sources speculated was a reprisal for a Ukrainian attack using a US-supplied Himars missile system on a Russian air defence site in Luhansk.

Others suggested the shelling could signal a renewed Russian offensive aimed at cities in Donetsk province.

Describing the situation on his Telegram channel, the Donetsk governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said Russian forces were “constantly shelling the entire free territory of Donetsk region, [with] Bakhmut district suffering the most”.

According to Mr Kyrylenko, one person died and five more were injured in the town, which has largely been evacuated.

The Russian military has been struggling to counter daily Ukrainian strikes on its ammunition dumps and command centres in recent days.

The Ukrainian strike on Luhansk city, which has been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014, was confirmed by pro-Russia separatist officials in the city.

— Reuters/Guardian