MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The Black Sea grain deal was presented rhetorically as an agreement aimed at reducing threats to global food security, while in reality it has turned out to be a smokescreen for the commercial export of Ukrainian grain to well-fed, non-needy countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said at the 11th International Meeting of High Representatives in Charge of Security Issues.

The implementation of the so-called grain deal has served as a vivid example of the Europeans and Americans speculating on the needs of the world’s poorest countries for their own benefit, he noted, adding that the well-known package offered by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, consisted of two mutually connected agreements, the Black Sea initiative for supplying Ukrainian foodstuffs and Russian ammonia and the Russian-UN memorandum on normalizing agricultural exports.

"Rhetorically, the package was presented as one aimed at lowering threats to food security and providing assistance to Asian, African and Latin American countries in need. In fact, however, it has turned out to be a smokescreen for commercial exports of Ukrainian grain to well-fed countries and providing an opportunity to earn surplus profits by Western corporations that have bought up Ukrainian croplands (US-based Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill, as well as Netherlands-based Louis Dreyfus - TASS)," Vershinin said in a statement released on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Friday.

A total of over 30.3 mln tons of grain has been exported from the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Yuzhny and Chernomorsk since August 1, 2022, the diplomat said. "The bulk of products (80%) has been delivered to countries with a high or higher-than-average income level, including to the EU (around 40%). Those countries in greatest need (Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia) only received 722,000 tons, or 2.5% of total cargos. However, this does not prevent Western countries backed by the UN from hypocritically circulating statements on global food security, the threat of hunger and the non-extension of sanctions to food and fertilizers," he pointed out.

"The reality is as follows, however: the Black Sea Initiative does not contain a single word about these noble tasks, whereas the Russia-UN memorandum contains several extensive relevant statements. However, it does not prevent the US, the EU and the UK from imposing more sanctions packages against Russia’s agricultural exports and systematically hamstringing the implementation of the second part of the deal - the Russia-UN memorandum overall," Vershinin added.

The obvious conclusion one could draw is that the package offered by Guterres and signed in Istanbul does not work, the deputy minister noted. "Not only is the Russian-UN memorandum not being implemented, but even the Russian ammonia exports stipulated under both agreements, including from the port of Yuzhny, as mentioned in the Black Sea Initiative, are not being made. The initiative itself has once and for all completely undermined the credibility of its stated humanitarian intent," he stressed.