The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the issue of extending the grain deal had not yet been resolved, a week before the end of the agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey between Moscow and Kiev.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the decisive factor for extending the grain deal is the implementation of the agreement signed with the United Nations on the export of Russian agricultural products.
The Russian Foreign Ministry revealed that about 280,000 tons of Russian fertilizers are being held in European ports, stressing that Russia is seeking to reconnect its banking system with the SWIFT system to facilitate financial transactions in the agricultural sector.
A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry indicated that Ukraine's grain shipments and the normalization of Russian agricultural exports were two indivisible parts of a single package of measures aimed at ensuring global food security.
The United Nations says the agreement reached last July allowed the export of 10 million tons of grain and other food from Ukraine, helping to avert a global food crisis.
However, Russia has repeatedly complained that its shipments of grain and fertilizer - although they are not directly targeted by Western sanctions - do not actually reach global markets because of the sanctions that restrict shipping companies' access to financing, insurance and port access.
In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Russia is resisting an unlimited attack from the West, especially from the United States, noting that Turkey is still seeking a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine.
Erdogan said that setting a time limit for the grain transfer agreement that he signed in Istanbul would be wrong, stressing the importance of the needy countries benefiting from this agreement instead of the rich countries.
He pointed out the possibility of establishing a peace road from the grain corridor, demarcating its borders, and working on it well.
The date of the grain export agreement from Ukrainian ports, signed under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations, is scheduled to expire next Sunday, November 19.
On Friday, two senior UN officials and the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed in Geneva the commitment of the two sides to implement the agreement to export essential Russian fertilizers to combat the food crisis.
A statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting between the three parties affirmed that "the participants remain committed to implementing this agreement as well."
Ukraine accuses Russia of pressuring the world with the weapon of starvation, while Russia denies that its warships prevented access to Ukrainian ports until the agreement entered into force.
Russia briefly suspended its participation in the agreement on October 29, after an attack on its fleet in the Black Sea, but Russian President Vladimir Putin restored his country to the agreement only 4 days later, after mediation by his Turkish counterpart.
It is noteworthy that the document of the initiative for the safe shipment of grain and foodstuffs from the Ukrainian ports in Istanbul was signed on July 22 last between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations.
The agreement included securing exports of grain stuck in the Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea to the world to address the global food shortage crisis that threatens a humanitarian catastrophe.