(CNN) — Russia has rejoined the agreement that guarantees the safe passage of ships carrying vital grain exports from Ukraine, just days after announcing that it was suspending its participation in the pact, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.
Moscow suspended its participation in the deal on Saturday, citing drone strikes on the city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had received “guarantees” allowing it to resume the program.
“The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received for the time being seem sufficient and resumes the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its official Telegram channel.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the Sevastopol attacks. Ukraine has not confirmed that its forces attacked the city, and the extent of the damage caused to the Russian ships is unclear.
Turkey says deal will resume on Wednesday
After speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the deal would resume on Wednesday noon Turkish time, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
“After our telephone conversation with Putin yesterday, as of noon today grain shipments will continue as previously planned,” Erdogan told a party meeting in parliament on Wednesday.
Erdogan will speak later on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the grain deal, Anadolu reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) during a meeting in Sochi, Aug. 5, 2022. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev and Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / POOL / AFP )
Turkey, together with the United Nations, collaborated with the negotiations of the agreement last July.
The agreement established a procedure that ensured the safety of ships carrying grain, fertilizer and other Ukrainian food through a humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea. Under the agreement, all ships arriving and leaving Ukrainian ports were inspected and monitored by international teams made up of officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN she was “delighted” the deal was being resurrected.
“[El acuerdo] is providing the necessary food for the world, so clearly Russia was finally convinced that they need to continue this, they can’t get in the way of feeding the whole world,” he told CNN This Morning.
world food
Ukraine plays a key role in the global food market, so Russia’s suspension of the deal raised serious concern at a time when the world is already facing a growing food crisis.
The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, with more than 26,000 tons of Ukrainian grain on board, leaves the Odessa region port on Monday.
According to the UN, Ukraine normally supplies the world with about 45 million tons of grain per year. It is among the world’s top five exporters of barley, corn and wheat. It is also by far the largest exporter of sunflower oil, accounting for 46% of world exports.
In normal times Ukraine would export about three quarters of the grain it produces. About 90% of these exports were previously shipped by sea from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, according to data from the European Commission.
But when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, it effectively imposed a blockade on ships leaving Ukrainian ports. The impact of the war on world food markets was imminent and extremely painful, especially since Ukraine is a major grain supplier to the World Food Program. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a UN body, said as many as 47 million people could be pushed into “acute food insecurity” due to the war.
The Black Sea deal provided much-needed relief. The UN estimates that the reduction in the prices of basic foodstuffs as a result of the agreement has indirectly prevented some 100 million people from falling into extreme poverty.
It further added that as of Monday, more than 9.5 million metric tons of food products had been exported under the deal since it went into effect in the summer.
Anna Chernova, Hande Atay, and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.