Kyiv: If grain deal fails, there is a "Plan B"

As Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Solski said in an interview, Ukraine has a "Plan B" to continue exporting grain if Russia pulls out of the deal. Moscow, for its part, is demanding the resumption of exports of ammonia fertilizers.

Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Nikolai Solski, has claimed in an interview with Reuters news agency published on Friday that Russia is now restricting the registration of ships under the grain deal and demanding the resumption of ammonia fertilizer exports. In this regard, according to Solski, Ukraine is ready for a "Plan B" that excludes Russia from the agreement. The official verbatim:

"We will be ready for a Plan B, which depends on us and on the UN. I don't think we're going to rest if this continues in the near future."

He underlined that "Plan B" excludes a "fourth party" in this regard, namely Russia. Solski also specified that this "Plan B" includes the provision of guarantees for transport companies. For this purpose, a special fund of $ 547 million has been set up in Ukraine. At the same time, the minister stressed that this option will be available only when Ukraine has "nothing left to lose." At the moment, however, the Ukrainian side wants to ensure that the grain agreement is implemented in its current form.

On June 1, the United Nations announced that Russia had informed the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul of its decision to restrict the registration of ships in the port of Yuzhny near Odessa due to the fact that Russian ammonia was not being exported. Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council Alexei Danilov did not rule out considering the resumption of ammonia transit through the Tolyatti-Odessa pipeline at a later date, but demanded guarantees from the partners. It is about the possibilities of exporting the grain that "has accumulated in the ports", he specified, without giving details.

The grain deal was extended for another two months on May 18. For the next extension, the Russian Foreign Ministry calls for allowing Russian ships to enter foreign ports, changing the conditions for insuring dry cargoes, connecting Rosselkhosbank (Russian Agricultural Bank) to SWIFT and commissioning the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline.