Ukraine called on the international community, in particular the UN and Turkey, to stop Russia's attempts to block the work of the "grain corridor".
This is stated in the joint statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and the Deputy Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, reports the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Ukraine is deeply concerned about the destructive actions of the Russian Federation, which lead to a delay in the work of the "grain corridor" through the Black Sea and undermine the Black Sea Grain Initiative in general, hinder shipping in the Black Sea and free access of food to world markets," the statement reads.
The ministers noted that representatives of the Russian Federation as part of the inspection groups at the Coordination Center in Istanbul have been systematically delaying the inspection of vessels heading through the Bosphorus to/from Ukrainian ports for several months.
"In particular, Russian inspectors deliberately slow down the terms of inspections, regularly demand non-regulated documentation, refuse to work during working hours and look for other unjustified reasons to stop inspections. Less than half of the planned 10 inspections usually take place every day," the statement said.
It is emphasized that the destructive policy of the Russian Federation has led to a systematic decrease in freight turnover within the framework of the "grain agreement", due to which the world has not received 10 million tons of Ukrainian grain in the last three months, and this trend is gaining momentum.
At the same time, it is noted that a queue of more than 140 ships has formed in the Bosphorus, the vast majority of which have been waiting there for more than a month. Due to such actions of the Kremlin, the countries of Africa and Asia do not receive food.
"Destroying the port infrastructure of Ukraine, Moscow is taking advantage of the opportunity of unhindered commercial shipping from Russian Black Sea ports. The volume of transportation through the sea ports of the Russian Federation in the Azov-Black Sea basin in 2022 amounted to more than 250 million tons, which exceeded the indicators of 2021," the statement said. .
The ministers noted that the Russians do not conduct inspections of their ships in the Bosphorus, which makes it possible to use commercial ships to receive military cargo in order to continue the war against Ukraine.
"We call on the international community, in particular the UN and Turkey as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand from the Russian Federation an immediate end to artificial delays in the work of the "grain corridor" through the Black Sea, to stop the Russian Federation's attempts to use food as a weapon, and to unblock commercial shipping to Ukrainian Black Sea ports," - the statement says.
It will be recalled that recently the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Serhiy Vershinin stated that the extension of the "grain agreement" will be "impractical" if sanctions affecting agricultural exports are not lifted from Moscow.