ANKARA, July 21. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he was seeking to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, soon in order to discuss the situation around the now-defunct Black Sea grain deal.
"The termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative will trigger not only a hike in global food prices but also a number of consequences, ranging from famine in some regions to new migration waves. We will not delay any initiatives to prevent this from happening. I think that we will discuss this issue in detail with Mr. Putin and ensure the continuation of this humanitarian movement. We know that he also has certain expectations with regard to Western countries. Western countries should also take measures with respect to this issue," Erdogan told Turkish journalists during an in-flight interview broadcast by the TRT television channel on Friday.
Meanwhile, on July 18 Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin did not yet have any plans for interacting with Erdogan.
The Black Sea grain deal ceased to function on July 17. After agreeing several times since the inception of the grain deal in July 2022 to extend the agreement to provide a shipping corridor across the Black Sea for vessels carrying Ukrainian grain, Moscow reiterated that the Russia-related provisions of the accords on the removal of obstacles to agricultural exports were never implemented. Russia also highlighted the fact that, although the agreements were intended to direct food supplies to the poorest countries, the bulk of Ukrainian grain had gone to wealthy Western countries. The Kremlin said that the Russian side would consider resurrecting the grain initiative as soon as its conditions were met.
On July 19, the Russian Defense Ministry said that, due to the termination of the grain deal, Moscow would deem all vessels traversing the Black Sea bound for Ukrainian ports to be carriers of military cargo, effective 12:00 a.m. Moscow time on July 20. It specified that the flag states of such vessels would in turn be deemed as parties to the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kiev regime. The ministry also declared certain areas in international waters in the northwestern and southeastern Black Sea to be temporarily dangerous for navigation.
Alexey Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that the country's leadership may propose to other countries and the UN that vessels hauling Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea be escorted by warships for protection. Earlier, Vasily Bodnar, Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey, said that Kiev had proposed to send food shipments from Ukrainian ports through the territorial waters of neighboring Black Sea littoral states Romania and Bulgaria.