UN Secretary General should join in ensuring further grain corridor operation - Zelensky

The President said this at a press conference in Vilnius on Wednesday, July 12, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"At today's meeting, the issue of the grain agreement was raised by President Erdoğan, who spoke about the fact that there are risks," the President of Ukraine noted.

Zelensky expressed the opinion that UN Secretary General António Guterres should also work on the grain corridor issue, "because the UN has relevant agreements with the Russian side."

The head of state emphasized that Ukraine did not violate anything and did not block anything.

"We did not negotiate with Russia. We negotiated with the UN and Türkiye. The UN and Türkiye negotiated with Russia," Zelensky explained.

He emphasized that the grain corridor is extremely necessary and should continue to work.

At the same time, Zelensky did not rule out that after the acceptance of security guarantees, there will be disruptions on the part of the Russian side of certain important humanitarian projects.

"Russia always reacts like this, does not keep its word and constantly wants to block certain humanitarian corridors to create a new crisis," the President of Ukraine noted.

As reported, the grain agreement was concluded in July last year with the participation of Ukraine, Türkiye, and the UN, as well as separately between Türkiye, the UN, and Russia. The agreements guarantee the safe passage of vessels with Ukrainian grain. Their observance is ensured by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which includes representatives of all parties.

Russia is threatening to withdraw from the grain agreement if it fails to resume pumping ammonia through the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline and partially lift restrictions on its exports.

The government of Ukraine announced the actual blocking of the grain initiative by the Russian side. Russia is openly sabotaging the inspection of ships. This has reduced the throughput capacity of the corridor to less than 20% of the possible.

Russia stated that there are no grounds for further extension of the grain initiative, which ends on July 17.