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UN 'Relatively Optimistic' on Renewing Ukraine Grain Export Deal

A combine harvests wheat in Russian-held part of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A combine harvests wheat in Russian-held part of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. (Reuters)
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UN 'Relatively Optimistic' on Renewing Ukraine Grain Export Deal

A combine harvests wheat in Russian-held part of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. (Reuters)
A combine harvests wheat in Russian-held part of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. (Reuters)

The United Nations said Wednesday it was relatively optimistic about prospects for renewing an agreement that allows grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.

The 120-day Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-led deal agreed with Moscow and Kyiv, runs until November 19.

It spells out terms for exporting grain from Ukrainian ports blocked by the war Russia started in February, AFP said.

A second agreement signed in parallel allows the export of Russian food and fertilizers despite Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the invasion.

The Ukraine arrangement has allowed nearly nine million tons of grain to leave those ports and ease a global food crisis triggered by the invasion.

But uncertainty over whether the accord will be renewed has already caused prices of some food products to rise.

"We are keen to see that renewed promptly now. It's important for the market. It's important for just continuity," said Martin Griffiths, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

"And I'm still relatively optimistic that we're going to get that," said Griffiths.

"I'm happy that Martin is relatively optimistic that the grain deal is extended," Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said. But he said Russia must see its own exports of grain and fertilizer allowed to transit as well.

"I've been saying for a long time already (that) the hurdles remain the same," he added.

The parties to the Black Sea accord are the United Nations, Ukraine, Russia and Türkiye, but the main negotiators in the grain deal renewal talks are the UN and Moscow.

Griffiths traveled recently to Moscow with Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

He said that technically there is no need for a new agreement, but rather a need to reassess and simplify existing procedures.

"We're very keen not only to have that Black Sea operation renewed for as long as the parties would allow," he added, but also on "removing those impediments to Russian grain and fertilizer exports to happen."

Russia complains that even with the accord it is not able to sell these products because of sanctions against its financial and logistical sectors.

Griffiths said he had useful discussions on this Tuesday in Washington.

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'Massive' Russian Attack on Kyiv Kills at Least Five

Debris lies at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Debris lies at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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'Massive' Russian Attack on Kyiv Kills at Least Five

Debris lies at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Debris lies at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Ukraine said Monday that "another massive attack" on the capital Kyiv killed at least five people, a day after the country's top military commander vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.

Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war have stalled, with the last direct meeting between the two sides almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks scheduled.

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard the buzzing of a drone flying over the city center and explosions, as well as gunfire.

"Another massive attack on the capital. Possibly, several waves of enemy drones," said a statement from Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration.

Four people were killed in Shevchenkivsky district, where part of a residential high-rise building was destroyed, and another person was killed to the south in Bila Tserkva, said Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.

AFP journalists saw around 10 people sheltering in the basement of a residential building in the center of the capital waiting for the attack to end, most of them scrolling their phones for news.

The latest strikes came after Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.

"We will not just sit in defense because this brings nothing and eventually leads to the fact that we still retreat, lose people and territories," he told reporters, including AFP.

Syrsky said Ukraine would continue its strikes on Russian military targets, which he said had proved "effective".

"Of course we will continue. We will increase the scale and depth," he said.

'Fair response'

Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war, targeting energy and military infrastructure sometimes hundreds of kilometers from the front line.

Kyiv says the strikes are a fair response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians.

At least four people were killed in an overnight Russian strike on an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, while a strike on a Ukrainian army training ground later in the day killed three others, officials said.

In wide-ranging remarks, Syrsky conceded that Russia had some advantages in drone warfare, particularly in making fibre-optic drones that are tethered and difficult to jam.

"Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both the number and range of their use," he said.

He also claimed that Ukraine still held 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) of territory in Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv launched an audacious cross-border incursion last August.

"These are our pre-emptive actions in response to a possible enemy offensive," he said.

Russia said in April that it had gained full control of the Kursk region and denies that Kyiv has a presence there.

Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its invasion in 2022 -- in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country and to seize more territory.

The Russian army said Sunday that it had captured the village of Petrivske in Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region.

Russian forces also sent at least 47 drones and fired three missiles towards Ukraine between late Saturday and early Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said.