Reading Time: 4 minutes Istanbul/Kyiv | Reuters — Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased. The accord crowned two months of talks brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, a NATO member that […] Read more
Ukraine, Russia sign deal to reopen grain export ports
Russia says it 'won't take advantage' of de-mining of ports
Ukraine grain storage crisis hits home as farmers harvest new crops
Outlook bleak if sea export route not reopened soon
Reading Time: 4 minutes Khreshchate, Ukraine | Reuters — Ukrainian farmer Mykola Tereshchenko hopes to start harvesting his wheat fields this week, but the smallholder in northern Ukraine has nowhere to store the grain. His silos are still crammed full with 1,100 tonnes of grain from last year’s harvest that he can’t export due to the closure of Ukraine’s […] Read more
As Ukraine grain deal emerges, U.S. aims to ease concerns over Russia sanctions
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters –– The United States on Thursday sought to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports by reassuring banks, shipping and insurance companies that such transactions would not breach Washington’s sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Enabling those Russian exports is a key part of attempts by the United Nations and Turkish […] Read more
Ukraine grain exports deal to be signed next week, Turkey says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Istanbul/United Nations | Reuters –– Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are due to sign a deal next week aimed at resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, but U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned there was still “a long way to go” before there would be peace talks to end the war. Turkish defence minister […] Read more
Poland says EU goal for Ukraine grain movement not feasible by July
Reading Time: 3 minutes Warsaw | Reuters – The European Union’s goal to move 20 million tons of grain out of Ukraine by the end of July is not feasible amid little progress in implementing EU and U.S. initiatives to ease logistics problems, the Polish agriculture minister said on Tuesday. Speaking to Reuters in an interview, Henryk Kowalczyk accused […] Read more
Turkish team to discuss Black Sea grain corridor in Russia this week
Turkey proposes to monitor safe passage
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ankara | Reuters — Ankara’s military delegation will travel to Russia this week to discuss details of a possible safe sea corridor in the Black Sea to export Ukrainian grain, Turkish presidency sources said on Tuesday. Russia’s TASS agency confirmed plans for the talks, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine […] Read more
Russia’s war may deprive world of three Ukrainian wheat harvests, minister says
'Significant' decline expected in winter wheat acres
Reading Time: 3 minutes Kyiv | Reuters — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will create a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons by keeping much of the Ukrainian crop from markets, pushing prices to record levels, Ukraine’s agriculture minister told Reuters. Ukraine, sometimes known as Europe’s breadbasket, has had its maritime grain export routes blocked by Russia and […] Read more
Russian attack destroys warehouses of major Ukrainian port terminal, owner says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kyiv | Reuters — Russian shelling destroyed the warehouses of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural commodities terminals in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv over the weekend, authorities and the facility’s owner said Tuesday. The attack came at a time Turkey is trying to develop a U.N.-backed plan to start grain exports from Ukraine’s ports, […] Read more
Ukraine not ready to export grain via Belarus, Zelenskiy says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Kyiv | Reuters — Ukraine is not ready to agree to a plan to export its grain by rail across Belarus for shipment via the Baltic Sea to bypass Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday. Zelenskiy told a news conference in the capital Kyiv that there could be […] Read more
U.N. chief in talks on restoring Ukraine grain exports
Contact made amid global food crisis
Reading Time: 3 minutes United Nations | Reuters — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that he is in “intense contact” with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union in an effort to restore Ukrainian grain export as a global food crisis worsens. “I am hopeful, but there is still a way to go,” said […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
