The United Nations expects a deal to resume Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea to be fully operational in a few weeks and restore shipments to pre-war levels of 5 million tonnes a month, two senior UN officials said on Tuesday. Friday (22).
Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations signed the accord in Istanbul, which Turkey said would mark the first step in alleviating an international food crisis exacerbated by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest food exporters and the Russian invasion on February 24 blocked Ukrainian ports, stranding dozens of ships, leaving 20 million tonnes of grain trapped in silos and pushing up world grain prices.
UN officials said the parties had agreed on the overall outline of the initiative, such as the ports involved, the establishment of a monitoring center in Istanbul, ways to inspect the ships involved and the plan’s limitations.
“We’re looking at a very fast implementation rate,” said one of the employees. “We started (Saturday) to establish the Joint Coordination Center (JCC),” he said, adding that minor issues still need to be resolved before the initiative can be fully implemented.
“We are talking about a few weeks before we see proper implementation of ships coming in and out,” the official said, although there may be an “initial movement of ships” to show that the mechanism will work.
Under the plan, Ukrainian authorities will guide the ships through safe channels through the mined waters to three ports, including Odesa, where they will be loaded with grain.
The ships will then leave Ukrainian territorial waters in the Black Sea, transit through the Bosphorus Strait to a Turkish port for inspection, and then proceed to their destinations.
“We are targeting a monthly export of around 5 million tonnes, which was the pre-war level of these three ports,” the official said.
The plan will initially be active for 120 days but could be renewed, officials said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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