UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Moscow on July 24 to restart the grain deal brokered by the world body, which allows shipments to be made from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports hours after reports said Russian drones had struck a key Danube River export route.
Guterres said the collapse of the Ukraine-Russia grain deal -- which was also brokered with the help of Turkey -- would mean “the most vulnerable will pay the highest price.”
“I call on the Russian Federation to return to the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative," the UN chief said, speaking at a three-day Rome summit on world food delivery systems
Guterres said global wheat and corn prices are already starting to rise, affecting poorer nations the most.
The comments come amid a report of a Russian drone attack on a key Danube River grain export route for Ukraine very close to the border of NATO and EU member Romania.
The Ukrainian military said infrastructure on the river in southern Ukraine was hit by exploding drones early on July 24, wounding seven workers and destroying a grain hangar and storage for other cargo.
News website Reni-Odesa cited a local official as saying three grain warehouses had been destroyed in the port city of Reni in an attack involving about 15 drones.
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Russia’s military has launched military strikes on Odesa and other Ukrainian food-export facilities in recent days after the Kremlin withdrew from the UN-brokered sea-corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain. Kyiv has accused Moscow of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the deal.
Guterres stressed that Russia and Ukraine both are “essential to global food security,'' noting that they have historically accounted for some 30 percent of global wheat and barley exports, 20 percent of maize, and more than 50 percent of sunflower oil.
"For my part, I remain committed to facilitating unimpeded access to global markets for food products and fertilizer from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation and to deliver the food security every person deserves,'' Guterres said.
Moscow announced late on July 17 that it was suspending its participation in the accord, which ensured the safe passing of exports totaling more than 33 million metric tons of grain from Ukrainian ports despite the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The supplies helped address a global food emergency and tamp down rampant inflation that accelerated worldwide after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.