UN, Russians to discuss extension of Ukraine export deal
Associated PressUNITED NATIONS — Senior U.N. and Russian officials planned to meet in Geneva on Friday for talks on extending the deal that returned Ukrainian grain to world markets and was supposed to eliminate obstacles for Russian exports of grain and fertilizer. U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who has been in charge of the Russian side of the agreement, were to meet with a Russian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, the U.N. said Thursday. Separate agreements brokered by the United Nations and Turkey and signed by Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul on July 22 were a rare example of tacit cooperation between the warring nations in the face of an escalating global food crisis following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukraine and Russia provided around 30% of the world’s exported wheat and barley, 20% of its corn and over 50% of its sunflower oil, Grynspan told the U.N. Security Council last week. In late October, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said: “Russia needs to see the export of its grain and fertilizers in the world market, which has never happened since the beginning of the deal.” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday and warned that global food security depends on renewing the deal.