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Russian diplomat castigates UN-brokered Istanbul grain deal’s implementation

Sergey Vershinin added that the implementation of the grain deal concluded last summer in Istanbul "cannot be regarded as satisfactory"

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin has excoriated the lack of progress in fulfilling the UN-brokered Istanbul grain deal.

"Progress with implementing the Russia-UN memorandum on the improvement of domestic agricultural exports are vanishing with all restrictions on bank payments, insurance, and access to ports remaining in place, with new ones being added on. Under such conditions, the whole concept of the package interconnected Istanbul agreements aimed at overcoming the food crisis, is in danger of becoming meaningless," he said in an interview with RTVI on Monday.

The diplomat added that the implementation of the grain deal concluded last summer in Istanbul "cannot be regarded as satisfactory."

"Only the Black Sea initiative to export Ukrainian food is being carried out, and even then in a format far from the originally declared humanitarian goals - 70% of the cargo consists of fodder corn and feed grain, and is sent mainly to countries with high incomes (47%) and [with incomes] above average (33%). Only 3% of the products were delivered to the countries in need (Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Djibouti)," Vershinin concluded.