Russia denies slowing down inspections of Ukrainian grain ships
Russia's ambassador to Turkey said on Friday that Moscow was sending its representatives to ship inspections in Istanbul more daily than required under the Black Sea grain export deal, rejecting Ukraine's accusation that Moscow was slowing down the process.
Reuters reported Thursday that Ukrainian grain exports are proceeding more slowly since the United Nations-brokered deal was extended last week to help ease the world's hunger crisis.
Vasyl Bodnar, Ukraine's ambassador to Ankara, attributed the slowdown to the uncertainty that prevailed last week over the renewal of the agreement as well as Russia's refusal to speed up inspections and increase the number of teams from the current three.
Russia's ambassador Alexei Erkhov said his country was "strictly fulfilling its obligations" under the grain export deal, which requires the parties to set up three inspection teams.
"Based on this, the number of members and the composition of the Russian delegation to the joint coordination center was determined," he said, adding that Russia sends its representatives to one or two additional inspection teams daily due to the increase in the number of ships.
"This was done as a gesture of goodwill and by reducing the time allotted for inspectors to rest in accordance with the Labor Code," Erkhov said in an e-mail response to questions from Reuters.
Three inspection teams have worked in the past two weeks, said Esmene Bala, a UN spokeswoman for the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul.
The Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul said Thursday that the delegations are discussing ways to increase the number of successful inspections, adding that it intends to deploy four inspection teams on Friday.
In response to Bodnar's statement that Russian teams are slowing down inspections "perhaps on purpose," Erkhov said that the duration of the inspection is determined by objective factors.
He added that the period "can only be reduced by formalizing the approach to this process. Such an approach, which is actively promoted by the Ukrainian delegation, is unacceptable to the Russian side."
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