Are Ukrainian Black Sea ports opening up to grain exports?

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks of a "spark of hope", Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says a solution is "two steps" away and Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar is confident that next week at another meeting of the negotiators Turkey, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, the remaining open questions can be clarified.

The statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry sounds somewhat more cautious: "We have succeeded in formulating some elements of a possible agreement," said its spokeswoman on Thursday.

Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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These "elements" became known after a round of negotiations that took place in Istanbul on Wednesday.

According to several media outlets, citing diplomatic sources, there is said to be a truce within certain geographic boundaries within which Ukrainian warships can escort grain carriers out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports;

some of the mines off the Ukrainian coast are to be removed for this purpose.

Turkey should control the empty freighters bound for Ukraine to prevent them from bringing arms to Ukraine – that is a demand from Russia.

The United Nations are setting up a coordination and monitoring center in Turkey to oversee the process.

Exports by rail have increased

However, the representations of how concrete this plan has already been worked out differ.

A report by the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti suggests that the boundaries of the "safety zone" are disputed.

The agency quotes an anonymous source as saying it must be set up "in close proximity to Ukrainian territorial waters."

The Ria Novosti report also feeds rumors that Russia is also demanding a relaxation of sanctions: the Istanbul talks will also address Russia's concerns about the impact of sanctions on insurance, logistics and accounting for Russian agricultural products.

The question of how Russian President Vladimir Putin views the possible agreement is also open.

The "Wall Street Journal" and the BBC quoted the assessment of diplomats, according to which this could become clear at the earliest on Tuesday next week, when Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet in Iran's capital Tehran.

In the Ukraine, large parts of last year's harvest are still waiting to be exported. Before the war, 95 percent of this was handled via the ports on the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

The ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol are now under Russian control, and the ports still controlled by Ukraine, including the largest in Odessa, have been blocked since the end of February due to the Russian attack.

The lack of Ukrainian grain on the world market has significantly contributed to the aggravation of the food crisis in the world.

If the stored grain cannot be transported away soon, this will also have an impact on the coming year, because in this case there will be no storage capacity for this year's harvest, which is currently underway.