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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia restated his opposition on Monday to the internationally backed Black Sea grain deal, an indication that little progress had been made towards reviving the settlement after bilateral talks together with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Amid a world push to revive the deal, which Turkey helped dealer and which had allowed Ukraine to securely export tens of hundreds of thousands of tons of grain by way of the Black Sea, Mr. Putin reiterated a litany of complaints concerning the accord and mentioned that Russia was ready to re-enter it solely after Western nations addressed its considerations.
Moscow withdrew from the settlement in July and has since repeatedly bombarded Ukrainian grain services and threatened civilian ships heading to Ukrainian ports. These assaults continued on Monday as Russia fired drones on the southern Odesa area for the second straight day, focusing on the Ukrainian facet of the Danube River, which has emerged as a substitute delivery route amid Russia’s de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Coastline.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Erdogan met for about 90 minutes in Sochi, a Russian Black Sea resort, based on the Russian state information company Tass. Addressing reporters afterward, Mr. Putin mentioned that Western nations had been nonetheless refusing to ease sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizer exports, resume deliveries of agricultural tools and spare elements to Russia, or remedy issues going through Russian banking and insurance coverage companies.
Russia has mentioned that the restrictions, which Western nations imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine final yr, have prevented it from exporting its personal merchandise because the deal brokered final summer time allowed.
“As I’ve already mentioned, we had been merely pressured to take this resolution,” Mr. Putin mentioned, referring to Russia’s withdrawal from the settlement on July 18.
Russia and Ukraine are among the many world’s largest grain exporters, and the deal had helped ease fears of a world meals disaster.
In current weeks, each Kyiv and Moscow have pushed proposals for a revised settlement that will circumvent the necessity for the opposite’s participation, whereas Turkey and the United Nations have been urging a resumption of the accord.
The secretary common of the United Nations, António Guterres, made overtures to Moscow final week, sending a letter to Russia’s international minister with a brand new set of proposals. Mr. Guterres instructed reporters in New York on Thursday that “now we have some concrete options for the considerations permitting for an efficient, or simpler entry of Russian meals and fertilizers to international markets at enough costs.” He didn’t present particulars.
Mr. Erdogan mentioned on Monday that he believed the U.N. proposals may kind the idea of a compromise to revive the deal. “We’ve got been repeating the factors our Russian associates have been articulating,” he mentioned, including, “I imagine we’ll attain an answer in a short while.”
He additionally welcomed a Russian proposal to ship one million metric tons of grain to poorer nations by way of Turkey or Qatar, a proposal that Mr. Putin mentioned was not an alternative choice to a broader settlement.
The Turkish president has incessantly served as an emissary of kinds to Mr. Putin, to the occasional consternation of his allies in NATO, the Western alliance that Russia considers one in all its major foes. Russia, which has been trying to find methods to evade Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, sees its relationship with Turkey as a attainable path to easing the restrictions.
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