Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced the extension in a televised speech and it was confirmed by Russia and Ukraine.

The flow of ships through the corridor had been grinding to a halt during the last few days with the deal apparently set to expire on Thursday.

“The Black Sea grain corridor deal has been extended by two months with the efforts of Turkey,” said Erdogan, who also thanked the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres for their help.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain exporters.

Moscow had initially appeared unwilling to extend the pact unless a list of demands regarding its own agricultural exports was met.

“This is a chance to help ensure global food security, not in words, but in deeds. First and foremost, to help the countries most in need,” Russia’s foreign ministry said, confirming the extension.

“Our principled assessment of the Istanbul agreements of July 22, 2022, has not changed and the distortions in their implementation should be corrected as soon as possible.”

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

Russia’s envoy to the UN said the deal was extended because “we still do not lose hope” that problems with Russia’s exports will be “sorted out.”

Guterres said outstanding issues remain that Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. will continue to discuss.

“The continuation is good news for the world,” Guterres told reporters. “Looking ahead, we hope that exports of food and fertilizers, including ammonia, from the Russian Federation and Ukraine will be able to reach global supply chains safely and predictably.”

The United States, meanwhile, has rejected Russia’s complaints. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week: “It is exporting grain and fertilizer at the same levels, if not higher, than before the full scale invasion.”

‘Must work effectively’

Ukraine welcomed the extension but a senior official said Russia must not be allowed to sabotage the agreement and must stop using food “as a weapon and blackmail.”

“We welcome the continuation of the Initiative, but emphasise that it must work effectively,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook.

Earlier on Wednesday, the last remaining ship registered to travel through the corridor had left a Ukrainian port.

U.N. data showed that the DSM Capella had left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk carrying 30,000 tonnes of corn and was on its way to Turkey.

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. make up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the Black Sea export deal. They authorize and inspect ships. No new vessels have been authorized by the JCC since May 4.

Authorized ships are inspected by JCC officials near Turkey before travelling to a Ukrainian Black Sea port via a maritime humanitarian corridor to collect their cargo and return to Turkish waters for a final inspection.

In an excerpt of a letter seen by Reuters last month, Russia told its JCC counterparts that it would not approve any new vessels to take part in the Black Sea deal unless the transits would be done by May 18 — “the expected date of … closure.”

It said this was “to avoid commercial losses and prevent possible safety risks” after May 18.

Some 30.3 million tonnes of grain and foodstuffs has been exported from Ukraine under the Black Sea deal, including 625,000 tonnes in World Food Programme vessels for aid operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.

— Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; additional reporting by Orhan Coskun, Ali Kucukgocmen, David Ljunggren and Pavel Polityuk; writing by Michelle Nichols, Nigel Hunt and Gareth Jones.

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The pact was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey in July and renewed for a further 120 days in November. The aim was to combat a global food crisis that was fueled in part by Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea blockade.

The deal had been set to expire on Saturday.

The UN and Turkey said on Saturday that the deal had been extended, but did not specify for how long. Ukraine said it had been extended for 120 days. But Russia’s co-operation is needed and Moscow only agreed to renew the pact for 60 days.

“The Black Sea Grain Initiative, alongside the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets, are critical for global food security, especially for developing countries,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Russia and Ukraine are key global suppliers of food commodities and Russia is also a top exporter of fertilizer.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said Ukraine had supplied nearly 500,000 tonnes of wheat for UN aid programs, and insisted on Saturday that the Black Sea export pact had been extended for 120 days and was an opportunity to keep helping those in need and “save the world from hunger.”

To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a three-year deal was also struck in July in which the UN agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.

Demands

Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. While its food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance industries are a barrier to shipments.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday that the European Union, the United States and Britain now “have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector,” if they want the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal to continue.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded that Washington had “gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carve-outs for food and fertilizers to governments and to the private sector.”

In a letter to UN officials dated March 16, and posted on Twitter by a Russian diplomat on Saturday, Nebenzia spelled out what Moscow wanted resolved — allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank to return to the SWIFT banking system and allowing the supply to Russia of agricultural machinery and spare parts.

Nebenzia also said restrictions need to be lifted on insurance and access to ports for Russian ships and cargo, a pipeline that delivers Russian ammonia to a Ukrainian Black Sea port needs to be restarted, and the accounts and financial activities of Russian fertilizer companies should be unblocked.

The UN has said that while progress has been made on facilitating Russian agricultural exports, there were still impediments, particularly in relation to payment systems.

Dujarric said on Saturday that the UN was strongly committed to implementing both the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal and the pact with Moscow and urged “all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully.”

Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tonnes of mainly corn and wheat under the deal, according to the UN. The top primary destinations for shipments have been China, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands.

— Reporting for Reuters by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara and Michelle Nichols at the UN; additional reporting by Max Hunder and Nick Starkov in Kyiv; writing by Michelle Nichols.

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