United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is considering a proposal to orchestrate a maritime military escort for cargo ships transporting grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, according to Ukrainian and U.N. officials.
“The Secretary-General will continue to explore all possible avenues to ensure that Ukrainian grain, Russian grain, and Russian fertilizer are out on the global market,” Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Tuesday. “That is a determination of his.”
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Russia terminated a process that has allowed the export of Ukrainian grain since last year, in a seeming play for leverage to demand sanctions relief and other benefits related to the deal that established the Black Sea Grain Initiative last July. Ukraine proposed to coordinate an export plan with the United Nations and Turkey in Russia’s absence, despite thinly-veiled threats from the Kremlin that the ships might come under attack.
“This is not an easy situation. We have to take risks,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York City. “And we have to demonstrate that we can carry on without Russia.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to want that prospect to be as daunting as possible.
”Certain risks appear there without relevant security guarantees,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, per state media. “Therefore, if anything is formalized without Russia, these risks should be addressed. We cannot say in this regard to what extent and what countries are ready to assume such risks.”
Russia’s withdrawal from the deal threatens to choke off an export corridor that has allowed 32.9 million metric tons of grain to reach the open market since last July. Kremlin officials scuttled the pact on the grounds that Russia has not received adequate benefits in exchange for its participation in the initiative.
“One of Russia's requirements is to reconnect the Russian Agricultural Bank, which handles payments for agricultural exports, to the SWIFT payment system,” as state-run TASS summarized. “Another demand is the launch of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. Russia also demanded to lift restrictions on the supply of agricultural machinery and spare parts to the country, as well as to permit Russian ships to enter foreign ports, unblock transport logistics and transportation insurance, as well as assets.”
Guterres, the former Portuguese prime minister who heads the U.N., rejected that justification on Monday in an unusual rebuttal that outlined the benefits that U.N. officials have arranged for Russia and underscored the humanitarian consequences of Moscow’s position.
“I deeply regret the decision by the Russian Federation to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative — including the withdrawal of Russian security guarantees for navigation in the North-Western part of the Black Sea,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis. They will pay the price. Indeed, we are already seeing a jump in wheat prices this morning.”
Kuleba, for his part, rejected the idea of bargaining with Russia to reopen the corridor.
“If we are to accept this logic, then the list of demands coming from Russia will be growing, growing, growing,” Kuleba said. “They extend the initiative by one month. And one month after they will come up with another list of demands. This is called blackmail, and blackmail should not be tolerated."
Peskov left open the possibility that Russia could use force against ships in that area of the Black Sea, claiming the route has been exploited by the Ukrainian military.
"Even if we take this zone of implementing the grain deal, there is no secret for anyone anymore; this is an obvious fact that the [Kyiv] regime uses this zone for combat purposes,” Peskov said. “This is a very important aspect that also should not be forgotten.”
Guterres’s spokesman, for his part, implied that the U.N. leadership shares U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s skepticism that transportation companies would be willing to make the deliveries in the absence of a security guarantee from Russia.
“There are a number of ideas being floated,” he said. “I think also questions need to be asked of ship operators and others. I mean, it's been very clear in the letter sent to us by the Russian Federation that they've removed the safety and security guarantee [from] the Black Sea grain corridor.”
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Kuleba acknowledged that Ukrainian officials have broached the subject of an international coalition forming to guard such vessels.
“These discussions are literally about every possible option,” he said. "We are literally still looking into every possible option. We're doing it in Kyiv. Our partners are doing it in Brussels, in Washington, here at the [U.N.] headquarters, in Ankara. Everyone is looking for the way out and every option is on the table now.”