A frantic day of diplomacy is expected Monday as the deal to allow Ukraine to ship grain via the Black Sea is due to expire at midnight with the last bulk carrier to move Ukrainian grain under the current deal departed from Odesa yesterday.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was originally agreed upon in July last year, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, allowing Ukraine to move nearly 33m tonnes of grain from three of its ports in the ensuing months. The deal comes up for renewal every few months, with Russia regularly leaving it to the last minute before agreeing to extend it. This time, however, the chances of renewal are looking bleak with hours to go.
With shipments via the Black Sea faltering, Ukraine has looked to move more by canal and river into Romania, eyeing a dredging operation on its inland waterways to allow larger ships to pass.
On Friday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was confident the deal would be extended again, after speaking to his counterpart in Moscow, Vladimir Putin. There’s now less than 24 hours for an agreement to be reached, something made harder following another attack on a bridge spanning the Kerch Strait to Crimea early this morning, an incident that is also likely to restrict marine traffic in the area in the coming days.
