Putin halts Black Sea grain exports

• Russia will suspend participation in a pact.
• It will allow Ukrainian vessels to safely pass through the Black Sea.
• Moscow withdrew from the UN-brokered deal.

Putin said Russia is pausing but not eliminating its participation in a pact that enables Ukrainian grain export vessels safe passage.

On Saturday, Moscow withdrew from the UN-brokered deal, claiming Ukraine utilized a Black Sea safety corridor to strike its fleet.

The UN claims the corridor was ship-free that night.

Ukraine has denied responsibility.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the accord would be honored and accused Russia of “blackmailing the world with starvation,” something Russia rejects.

Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said 12 ships carrying 354,500 tons of food, including grain, left Black Sea ports on Monday despite the consequences. A spokeswoman for Odesa’s military administration told Reuters that this was the grain deal’s highest export volume.

The infrastructure ministry said one vessel carrying 40,000 tons of grain was headed to Ethiopia, where “the serious threat of widespread hunger” exists.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, its navy blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, preventing the transport of 20 million tons of grain, maize, and sunflower oil.

In July, Turkey and the UN mediated a grain export deal between Ukraine and Russia through Black Sea ports.

President Putin halted the pact on Monday, citing Kyiv’s “massive” drone attack on Crimea’s fleet.

He warned grain exports were unsafe without maritime safety.

In a televised address, Mr. Putin said Ukraine must ensure civilian vessel safety.

Kyiv claims Moscow had long prepared to withdraw the internationally-brokered pact and used the strike as a pretext.

“In situations when Russia is talking about the impossibility of guaranteeing the safety of shipping in these areas, such a deal is scarcely realistic,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

The US called Russia’s pullout from the accord “weaponizing food.”

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy leader, has encouraged Russia to change its decision, citing the worldwide food crisis.

The Russian ambassador to the US said it was wrong to blame Russia for a global food crisis.

Russia has escalated its evacuations of the seized Kherson region, after saying they had ended over the weekend.

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