Minister-Talks On Extending Black Sea Grain Deal Begin Nxt Week

The Ukrainian Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov has stated that talks on extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative will begin next week. The UN-Turkey brokered initiative sees Ukrainian and Russian grain exported from Black Sea ports with guarantees that they will not be attacked by the other side.

• On 16 Feb Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov issued a joint statement calling for Russia to stop 'using food as a weapon', stating that "We call on the international community, in particular the U.N. and [Turkey] as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand from the Russian Federation to stop immediately the delays in the work of the Black Sea grain corridor, to stop Russia’s attempts to use food as a weapon and to unblock commercial navigation to the Ukrainian Black Sea ports,"
• The Ukrainian grain traders association, the UGA, stated on 17 Feb that Ukraine's grain and oilseed harvest is on course to come in at 64.8mn tonnes in 2023, down from 72.7mn in 2022. The UGA stated that wheat exports could come in at 14mn tonnes, with corn at 20mn.