Despite how days ago Russia stated it had lost confidence in the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export its crops along a humanitarian corridor from its ports, and thus it would no longer be party to it, President Putin has apparently had a change of heart. As a result, Russia has indicated that it will rejoin the grain deal, with confirmation coming from the Turkish Defense Minister that his counterpart in Russia, Sergei Shoigu, that the deal would “continue in the same way as before.”
Originally, Russia had suspended its participation in the deal brokered with the assistance of the United Nations and Turkey in the aftermath of damage being inflicted on one of their warships in the Black Sea, which Russia blamed on a drone strike orchestrated by the Ukrainians. Closely following on the heels of this announcement, countries like the United States and Ukraine accused Moscow of weaponizing food to threaten the populations of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and some parts of Asia, which are reliant on the food supplies coming from Ukraine via the humanitarian food corridor. Without access to these food supplies, there had been widespread fears over an escalation in food prices and global hunger concerns.
The abrupt change in policy by Russia happened only two days after the other parties to the agreement indicated their continued commitment to the deal. Indeed, a large convoy of ships already transported a record amount of grain in the period that Moscow indicated it would be withdrawing its support. Russia has attempted to justify this change in stance in part due to it having received written guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the Black Sea grain corridor to engage in any military operations with Russia.
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