Ammonia pipeline incident may have negative impact on grain deal — Kremlin
UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday that the UN continues to work with the parties on ammonia fertilizer exports
MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Undermining the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline complicates the situation with the extension of the grain deal, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
According to him, such an emergency can "only negatively" affect the fate of the grain deal. "We don't know what kind of destruction there is, we don't know what the Ukrainian side is going to do with this line," Peskov said.
"You know, this topic was an intrinsic part of the [grain] agreement that affected us. So, in a way, this is another moment that complicates the situation in terms of keeping the deal going," Peskov concluded.
UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday that the UN continues to work with the parties on ammonia fertilizer exports.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier on Wednesday that the restoration of the damaged Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline will take 1 to 3 months, if the facility is accessible. "According to preliminary estimates, the repair and restoration work [on the ammonia pipeline] will take about 1 to 3 months, provided that the site is accessible," she said.
Zakharova recalled that the ammonia pipeline was one of the core pillars in the fulfillment of the package agreements signed on July 22, 2022, in Istanbul. "The facility was critical to ensuring global food security," she said, adding that each year, approximately 2 mln metric tons of raw materials for fertilizer production were pumped through it, enough to feed 5 mln people.
Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said earlier on Wednesday that Ukrainian saboteurs blew up the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline in the Kharkov Region on the evening of June 5, with civilians hurt in the sabotage attack. "At about 9:00 p.m. Moscow time on June 5, a Ukrainian subversive and reconnaissance group blew up the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline near the settlement of Masyutovka in the Kharkov Region. Civilians were injured as a result of this terrorist act," the spokesman said.