Moscow announced on Monday it wouldn’t extend the Ukraine grain deal over alleged non-compliance by other parties. Russia will no longer provide security guarantees for civilian vessels traversing the formerly exempted corridor in the Black Sea, the country’s foreign ministry has announced. Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin stated that it would not extend the Black Sea grain agreement since its own food and fertilizer exports are still being blocked.
In a statement released on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that this latest decision “means the recall of maritime navigation security guarantees, the discontinuation of the maritime humanitarian corridor [and] the reinstatement of the ‘temporarily dangerous area’ regime in the north-western Black Sea.” Russian diplomats went on to accuse Ukraine of using the humanitarian corridor to carry out attacks on Russian targets.
As for the Ukrainian grain shipments that were facilitated by the deal, the ministry claimed that the vast majority of those ended up in Europe, with several countries lining their pockets. The statement pointed out that the whole mechanism, which was launched last summer, had ostensibly been designed to help avert famine in poorer nations. According to Moscow, key points in the Russia-UN memorandum, which was signed in lockstep with the Black Sea Initiative, have remained unfulfilled to date.
In one case cited in the statement, a shipment of Russian fertilizers donated free of charge to several African countries was blocked in the EU. The foreign ministry concluded that in light of all these issues, the agreement no longer makes sense. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the arrangement as a “one-sided game all along.”
In his substack article: Russia Did The Right Thing By Declining To Extend The Grain Deal – Andrew Korybko writes:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Monday that “The Grain Deal has been stopped. As soon as its Russian part is implemented, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this agreement.” This was the right thing to do since that agreement hadn’t tangibly advanced any of Russia’s interests. Its agricultural exports and related services like shipping insurance remain sanctioned by the West in violation of that deal so there was no reason to extend it again.
Earlier “goodwill gestures” only resulted in making a fool out of Russia even though that wasn’t the Kremlin’s intent. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that it kept the deal alive due to policymakers wishfully thinking that at least part of it might be implemented, which hadn’t happened. All that occurred is that Kiev was able to claim that Moscow’s prior extension of this agreement meant that even President Putin appreciated the role that Ukrainian agricultural exports play in feeding the Global South.
It doesn’t matter that the Russian leader said on many occasions that only around 3% of that country’s foodstuffs were sent to those that need them the most since the Mainstream Media rarely mentions that in their reporting on this subject. They also never inform their audience that the EU’s temporary restriction of certain Ukrainian agricultural imports obviously proves that Kiev was prioritizing exports to them instead of to the Global South like it officially agreed to do per terms of its grain deal with Moscow.
As long as that agreement remained in place, the abovementioned lies were perpetuated, but now the narrative will predictably shift to falsely claiming that Russia is “weaponizing famine” for whatever reason Western perception managers imagine. No matter what Moscow does, it’s always demonized by them, which is why it was an exercise in futility thinking that they might finally praise it after the grain deal’s previous extensions.
These “goodwill gestures” were therefore counterproductive in hindsight. Many of Russia’s own supporters were critical of them since they realized long before that country’s policymakers did that neither the West nor Kiev can be trusted. Time and again, the Kremlin has been led by the nose only to ultimately end up disappointed, yet it didn’t learn this lesson until now. Even so, it can’t be assumed that this won’t happen again in some other form due to the likely resumption of peace talks by year’s end.
Hopefully this regrettable experience will teach President Putin that it’s time for him to demand “goodwill gestures” from his country’s so-called “Western partners” as a precondition for agreeing to anything else with them or their Ukrainian proxy going forward. The Russian leader should stop projecting his professional integrity onto his pathologically lying counterparts since it’s this personal shortcoming that’s responsible for them hoodwinking him for so long.
FILE PHOTO: Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections, are seen anchored off the Istanbul coastline. © Chris McGrath / Getty Images