Russia Sees No Grounds for Grain Deal Extension
09:25 GMT 30.06.2023 (Updated: 11:38 GMT 17.07.2023)
© Sputnik / Ilya Naymushin
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed the media in Moscow on the situation in Ukraine, including humanitarian issues and the current international agenda.
Russia does not see any real grounds for the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
“Therefore, I don’t see what arguments those who would like to continue this Black Sea initiative have, because, as I said, it has long become commercial in terms of Ukrainian grain,” Lavrov told reporters.
Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN reached an agreement on July 22, 2022 to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships carrying food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. On May 18, 2023, Russia extended the deal, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, for 60 days, until July 17.
The deal is an integral part of a package agreement. The second part - the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years - envisions the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers, the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, the resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services, the restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and a number of other measures. Moscow says this part of the package agreement has not been implemented yet.
Addressing the issue of Ukrainian children who are located in Russia the Russian foreign minister saud they can go back to their parents if they show up or make such a requestd.
“We are very concerned about the fate of children who find themselves in conflict zones ... All the children who are now on Russian territory, they are all known, no one hides their names, no one hides the coordinates where they are. And, if these children have parents or direct relatives, they have every right to take these children,” Lavrov told a briefing, adding that some children already returned to their relatives.
The Russian minister also said that some 200 Ukrainian children were taken in by families in Russia, but this was not an adoption. In addition, Lavrov said that Ukrainian children have been evacuated to safe regions in Russia.
There is no need for Moscow to maintain the same volume of diplomatic contacts with the West, as it was before it declared war on Russia "by the hands of Ukraine," Sergey Lavrov added.
"To be honest, I do not even see the need in the same amount of diplomatic contacts now as it was in normal times — before the West declared war on us through the hands of the Ukrainian Nazi regime," Lavrov said at a briefing.
