Russia and Turkey to control grain exports from Ukraine

14 июля 2022

The preliminary agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain has been reached: the meeting in Istanbul was "positive and constructive", the Turkish Defense Ministry said. Representatives of Russia and Ukraine discussed issues of safe passage of ships with food products through the Black Sea. And also they agreed about the creation of profile coordination center in Istanbul. Next week another meeting will be held, and formal agreement on food transportation from Ukraine should be the outcome of this process. The UN assessed the results of the meeting as significant progress in the problem of resolving the food crisis.


António Guterres, UN Secretary General:

Today in Istanbul, we have seen a critical step forward to ensuring the safe and secure export of Ukrainian food products through the Black Sea. In a world darkened by global crises, today, at last, we have a ray of hope. A ray of hope to ease human suffering and alleviate hunger around the world, a ray of hope to support developing countries and the most vulnerable people, a ray of hope to bring a measure of much-needed stability to the global food system.

The U.N. secretary general expressed hope that grain exports from Ukraine would soon resume as a result of a final agreement reached next week. According to Reuters, Turkey, with U.N. support, will inspect ships involved in the shipment to rule out arms smuggling.