There are no reasons to further prolongate the Black Sea initiative, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
"Under these circumstances, it is clear that there are no grounds for further continuation of the 'Black Sea Initiative', which expired on July 17. At the same time, the Russian side keeps taking its obligations as a party to the arrangement in good faith and responsibly, making the necessary efforts in strict compliance with the rules of procedure so that all participating vessels can successfully complete their mission and leave the Black Sea before it expires," the ministry said on its website.
Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the United Nations reached an agreement on July 22 last year to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships carrying food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
On May 18 this year, Russia extended the Black Sea Grain Initiative for 60 days until July 17.
Recently, the British media reported that the European Union is looking into the possibility of reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT through the creation of a subsidiary to safeguard the grain deal.
In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that this idea is "obviously non-working."
"A non-working scheme is being put forward to create a certain subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank, which the EU may someday agree to connect to SWIFT. Such practical points to the fact that it takes many months to open a bank branch, the establishment of SWIFT takes another three months, and the shutdown occurs in a matter of minutes are left out. In exchange for all this, Russia must now agree to a further extension of the Black Sea Initiative," the ministry said in a statement.
This idea is an attempt to create the appearance of some "breakthrough results" in the normalization of Russian agricultural exports, which is provided for by the Russia-UN memorandum, the statement added.
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 Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and a number of other measures.
Moscow says this part of the package agreement has not yet been implemented.