He continues to blow hot and cold.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday evening that Turkey's mediation had enabled progress on grain exports that kyiv accuses Russia of blocking, while demanding in exchange a lifting of Western restrictions on Russian grain.

In Tehran, where he had been invited for talks with his Iranian counterparts Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Syria and Ukraine, Putin affirmed that there was progress on the question of the export by sea of million tons of Ukrainian cereals, which are missing from the global food balance.

“Thanks to your mediation, we have moved forward,” he told Erdogan, whose country, a NATO member and regional power in the Black Sea, maintains a delicate balance between Moscow and kyiv.

"All the questions are not settled yet, it's true, but there is movement and that's a good thing," added the master of the Kremlin.

Prerequisite on Russian cereals

In the evening, Vladimir Putin cast doubt on these advances, however, by linking the export of Ukrainian agricultural production to a lifting of Western restrictions on Russian cereals.

“We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian cereals, but on the basis that all restrictions linked to air deliveries for the export of Russian cereals are lifted”, affirmed the Russian president, at the end of the talks.

Russia has blown hot and cold in recent weeks on these crucial exports, particularly for the African continent, claiming not to oppose them while blaming Western sanctions and setting conditions that Ukraine refuses as it stands, such as the demining of its harbors and maritime corridors.

Last episode of this immense showdown: the European Commission has proposed to member states to release "certain funds" from Russian banks frozen by EU sanctions to help the resumption of trade in agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilizers, according to a document seen by AFP on Tuesday.

Gazprom “ready to pump as much as necessary”

The EU "wants to make it perfectly clear that nothing in the sanctions is stopping the transport of grain out of Russia or Ukraine," an EU diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

About gas, another subject of tension between Moscow and the Europeans, Vladimir Putin assured that the Russian giant Gazprom "would fully fulfill its obligations" at a time when deliveries to Europe are falling.

“Gazprom is ready to pump as much as necessary,” he said, indicating that the West was in trouble because they had imposed sanctions on Moscow and “closed” hydrocarbon delivery channels.

The war in Ukraine will enter its sixth month on July 24 and there is no overall civilian death toll from the conflict so far.

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