On the eve of the extension of the "grain initiative", Russia is always looks for many reasons why the agreement cannot continue to work. This was commented on the FREEDOM TV channel by the Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Denis Marchuk, in response to the statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the West had buried the Black Sea food initiative with its sanctions.

"Once again, we hear statements from them that some points of the "grain agreement" are not being implemented in favor of Russia. In this way, the aggressor country is trying to get preferences for its economy. They constantly complain that they cannot sell their grain and fertilizers. This is a lie, because about 3-4 million tons of grain are shipped from Russia every month. Another issue is that commercial companies do not want to work with them, they do not want to have anything to do with Russia, and they do not have enough of their own fleet of sea grain carriers, so they have logistics problems" said Denys Marchuk .

According to him, agricultural export statistics show that today Russia is capable of exporting the necessary volumes. Moreover, after threats to withdraw from the agreement, the Russian’s chief diplomat Sergei Lavrov, has already stated that they would continue to participate in the agreement.

"This news is not straightforward because when Russia suspended its participation in the "grain agreement" in October 2022, the passage of ships through the Bosphorus increased tenfold, due to the absence of Russian inspectors who were slowing down this process. The free passage of ships at that time allowed the countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to receive food in the necessary volumes," Denys Marchuk emphasized.

He also reminded that since November 2022, the Ukrainian side is trying to expand the "grain agreement" to the ports of the Mykolaiv region. This would aloow expanding the range of agricultural exports by adding meat and horticultural products to grain. Also, the opening of new Ukrainian ports would reduce the cost of logistics for Ukrainian agrarians, and therefore they would receive competitive prices for their products