Kremlin announces ‘de facto termination’ of grain deal

According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the grain deal has been de facto terminated as of July 17.

According to Peskov, the termination of the deal is due to the agreement not fulfilling the conditions put forward by Russia:

The Black Sea agreement has de facto ceased to be in force today. As the President of the Russian Federation said earlier — the term expires on July 17, unfortunately the part concerning Russia of the Black Sea agreements has not been fulfilled so far, so it has been terminated. As soon as the Russian part of the agreements is fulfilled, the Russian side will return to the implementation of the deal immediately. This is the de facto situation.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow has already officially notified Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN “of its objection to the extension of the deal.”

• Russia has put forward several conditions for the extension of the agreement. Among them are unimpeded supplies of ammonia to Europe via Ukraine, as well as Rosselkhozbank’s (the Russian Agriculture Bank) connection to the SWIFT system, from which it was disconnected as part of the sanctions.