Moscow Urges Kiev Not to Pass Desire to Benefit Off as Fight Against Global Hunger Threat

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia is advising Ukraine not to pass profit-seeking off as a fight against threat of world hunger, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday, commenting on recent statements by Ukrainian officials about extension of the grain deal.

"On the eve of the expiration of the second term of the Black Sea Initiative on March 18 this year, an increase in the number of comments in the media and the replication of the topic of Ukrainian grain exports are noticeable. Two ministers from Kiev, Dmytro Kuleba and Oleksande Kubrakov, were caught distorting facts and speculating in their joint statement. Immediately after the signing of two 'package' interconnected agreements in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, — the Black Sea Initiative and the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports — we began responsible and effective implementation of our obligations," the ministry said in a statement.

It noted that the Russian representatives actedstrictly within the agreed rules of procedures and initially approved modalities.

Earlier on Friday, Ukraine's deputy minister of infrastructure, Yuriy Vaskov, said that Kiev expected that negotiations on the extension of the grain deal would begin in a week. He added that he hoped the deal to be extended.

“There is a lot of talk about the alleged reduction and stabilization of global prices for food and fertilizers. However, in reality, wheat remains overpriced. The price for ammonia, which is a key raw material for the production of fertilizers, is at a record high of $1,100 per cubic meter, which is already led not only to a crisis of its affordability, but also to a physical shortage. However, the Ukrainians obviously don’t care about this, continuing to block the resumption of the operation of the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, clearly spelled out in the Black Sea initiative, for purely political reasons," the ministry said.