Loading ...Ukraine suddenly walked away from Black Sea deal – Reuters
A day before the agreement would have come into force, Kiev pulled out, sources told Reuters
Russia and Ukraine had almost reached a new Black Sea shipping deal in March after two months of negotiations, only for Kiev to abruptly walk away, Reuters reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The official agreement governing the freight route lapsed in July 2023, when Moscow declined to renew the original Türkiye- and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative. Russia said that the US and EU had not kept their part of the deal, blocking exports of Russian food and fertilizer.
The most recent talks were brokered by Türkiye at the prompting of the United Nations, and a tentative agreement to “to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea” was reached last month, according to Reuters’ sources.
We – the west – are, as Russia calls us, agreement incapable. That’s a diplomatic way of saying, we lie constantly, and all the time. No one trusts us anymore! For good reason.