Erdogan Says Black Sea Grain Deal Extended for Two Months

Vessels, carrying grain under UN's Black Sea Grain Initiative, wait for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul, Türkiye 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
Vessels, carrying grain under UN's Black Sea Grain Initiative, wait for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul, Türkiye 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
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Erdogan Says Black Sea Grain Deal Extended for Two Months

Vessels, carrying grain under UN's Black Sea Grain Initiative, wait for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul, Türkiye 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
Vessels, carrying grain under UN's Black Sea Grain Initiative, wait for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul, Türkiye 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik

The Ukraine Black Sea grain deal has been extended for two more month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, one day before Russia could have quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports.

The flow of ships through the corridor had been grinding to a halt during the last few days with the deal apparently set to expire on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the last remaining ship registered to travel through the corridor had left a Ukrainian port.

UN data showed that the DSM Capella had left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk carrying 30,000 tons of corn and was on its way to Türkiye.

"The Black Sea grain corridor deal has been extended by two months with the efforts of Türkiye," Erdogan said in a televised speech, also thanking the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for their help.

A spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry said they would be commenting later on the reported extension.

The United Nations and Türkiye brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain exporters.

Moscow agreed to extend the Black Sea pact for a further 120 days in November, but then in March it agreed to a 60 day extension - until May 18 - unless a list of demands regarding its own agricultural exports was met.

'Open questions'

To convince Russia in July to allow Black Sea grain exports, the United Nations agreed at the same time to help Moscow with its own agricultural shipments for three years.

"There are still a lot of open questions regarding our part of the deal. Now a decision will have to be taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Asked on Wednesday about how the talks were progressing, Peskov told a briefing he would not enter into "hypothetical discussions" on what Russia would do if the grain deal lapsed.

Senior officials from Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the UN met in Istanbul last week to discuss the Black Sea pact.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week he thought the deal could be extended for at least two more months.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

The United States has rejected Russia's complaints. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week: "It is exporting grain and fertilizer at the same levels, if not higher, than before the full-scale invasion."

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the UN make up a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the Black Sea export deal. They authorize and inspect ships. No new vessels have been authorized by the JCC since May 4.

Authorized ships are inspected by JCC officials near Türkiye before travelling to a Ukrainian Black Sea port via a maritime humanitarian corridor to collect their cargo and return to Turkish waters for a final inspection.

In an excerpt of a letter seen by Reuters last month, Russia told its JCC counterparts that it would not approve any new vessels to take part in the Black Sea deal unless the transits would be done by May 18 - "the expected date of ... closure".

It said this was "to avoid commercial losses and prevent possible safety risks" after May 18.

Some 30.3 million tons of grain and foodstuffs has been exported from Ukraine under the Black Sea deal, including 625,000 tons in World Food Program vessels for aid operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen.



UN Decries Ongoing Combat in Myanmar as Earthquake Relief Faces Big Challenges

A man rides his motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 11, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (AFP)
A man rides his motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 11, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (AFP)
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UN Decries Ongoing Combat in Myanmar as Earthquake Relief Faces Big Challenges

A man rides his motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 11, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (AFP)
A man rides his motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 11, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (AFP)

Human rights experts for the United Nations are expressing urgent concern about ongoing military operations in Myanmar’s civil war, despite ceasefires called by major parties to facilitate relief efforts after the country’s devastating March 28 earthquake.

At the same time, a new UN report said that because of the earthquake, the Southeast Asian country is facing increased humanitarian needs while a food shortage and a health crisis appear to be looming.

“At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva said Friday. “Since the earthquake, military forces have reportedly carried out over 120 attacks – more than half of them after their declared ceasefire was due to have gone into effect on 2 April.”

The UN agency said: “We call on the military authorities to remove any and all obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to cease military operations."

The official death toll from the 7.7 magnitude quake and aftershocks reached 3,649 as of Wednesday, with 5,018 injured.

“The devastating earthquakes that struck Myanmar on 28 March have caused widespread death, human suffering and destruction—aggravating an already alarming humanitarian crisis,” declared a UN Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan released Friday.

“Over 6.3 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance and protection as a result of the earthquakes, including 4.3 million people who were already in need across the affected areas and now require even greater support, and an additional 2 million people who require urgent assistance and protection due to the earthquakes."

It also warned that the quake hit Myanmar's main food-producing regions, “destroying fields, irrigation, and grain stores. Millions of livestock are at risk, and farmers now face the loss of both their harvest and their only source of income.”

With disease already spreading, Myanmar is also at risk of a health emergency, especially as nearly 70 health facilities have been damaged, and there are severe shortages of medical supplies said the UN plan.

“Cases of diarrhea are rising, children and older people are falling ill from the heat, and concerns about cholera are growing, especially where bodies remain buried under the rubble in this extreme heat,” it said.

Myanmar’s military government and its battlefield opponents, which include pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority guerrilla forces, have been trading accusations over alleged violations of ceasefire declarations each had declared to ease earthquake relief efforts.

Reports of continued fighting are widespread, with the army receiving the most criticism for continuing aerial bombing, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitnesses.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army’s 2021 takeover ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which led to nationwide peaceful protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to civil war.

The UN Human Rights Office's statement noted that most of the army’s attacks “have involved aerial and artillery strikes, including in areas impacted by the earthquake.”

“Numerous strikes have been reported in populated areas, many of them appearing to amount to indiscriminate attacks and to breach the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law.”

The statement echoed points made late Thursday by Tom Andrews, the UN’s independent Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

“The Security Council should urgently consider a resolution that demands that all parties to the conflict in Myanmar cease offensive military operations and that the junta immediately end its human rights violations and obstruction of humanitarian relief efforts,” Andrews said in a press statement.

He described it as unfortunate but unsurprising that the army violated its own ceasefire “by launching dozens of new attacks with devastating results.”

“I have received reports of humanitarian workers being stopped, interrogated and extorted at military checkpoints,” Andrews said. “The junta has blocked access to opposition-controlled areas, including in Sagaing Region, which was severely impacted by the earthquake. Junta soldiers opened fire on a convoy by the Red Cross Society of China.”

“The 28 March earthquake is the latest in a litany of tragedies suffered by the people of Myanmar over the past four years,” Andrews said.