Washington

Slamming Russia for withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Moscow’s decision “unconscionable" adding that the agreement should be “restored as quickly as possible”, CNN reported. “I hope that every country is watching this very closely.

They will see that Russia is responsible for denying food to people who desperately need it worldwide and contributing to rising prices at a time when many countries continue to experience very difficult inflation,” Blinken said on Monday at the State Department.

The top US diplomat further pointed out that the deal should not have been necessary in the first place, and only became so after Russia launched its war in Ukraine. Blinken said the Ukrainians, the US and others will look to see if there are “any other options” to transit grain safely through the Black Sea onto the market, such as by rail and by road. However, he added that there are challenges in finding alternatives.

“The challenge is this: if Russia is ending this initiative and sending a message that grain cannot and other food products cannot leave Ukraine unimpeded, even if there are other options, I think it will likely have a profound chilling effect on the ability to pursue them, as other countries, companies, shippers, etc., will be very concerned about what happens to their ships and to their personnel if Russia is opposing any export of food products from Ukraine,” CNN quoted Blinken as saying.

“The whole point of this was to have a voluntary agreement that involved all of the relevant parties that were endorsed by the United Nations to make sure there was safety, security, predictability, in moving food out of Ukraine into places that were desperately in need of it,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Russia said that it is suspending its participation in a deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain. The agreement, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022, was officially set to expire at 5 pm on Monday (midnight local time in Istanbul, Kyiv, and Moscow). Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Monday told reporters that Russia would not renew the pact right now, saying it “has been terminated.”

Russia has for some time complained that it is being prevented from adequately exporting its own foodstuffs, and Peskov cited the objection as the reason for pulling out of the deal. Peskov told reporters: “As soon as the Russian part is completed, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal.” Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend said that the main objective of the deal, supplying grain to countries in need, “has not been realized,” again complaining that Russia faced obstacles exporting its own food. As per CNN, Peskov left the door open to reviving the deal in the future, saying that Russia will comply “as soon as the Russian part (of the deal) is completed.”

The food deal allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea, with ships bypassing a Russian blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports and navigating safe passage through the waterway to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait in order to reach global markets. Vessels were inspected before they arrived in Ukraine by Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials, to ensure weapons were not being smuggled into Ukraine.

It proved vital for stabilizing global food prices and bringing relief to the developing countries which rely on Ukrainian exports. The impact of the war on global food markets was immediate and extremely painful, especially because Ukraine is a major supplier of grain to the World Food Programme (WFP), according to CNN.