UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Deal: Why Russia pulls back from deal and how it will impact Global food crisis - Explained

Russia-Ukraine conflict led to the hamper of the transportation of grain from the Ukraine ports around the globe. Socres of ships laded with tons of wheat and grain stuck in the black sea for many days due to the Russian naval blockade.

File Photo

New Delhi: Russia has announced to back off from the UN-mediated Black Sea grain deal in the wake of surging tension. The deal was a boon for humanity to avert the famine crisis and bring down global food prices. Over more than 9 million tons of grain has been exportered from the surrounding region of the black sea which is known for high-yield wheat and other grains production. This would further accelerate the global prices of Food and lead to food crisis especially in middle east and parts of Africa.

What is Black Sea Grain Deal?

Russia-Ukraine conflict led to the hamper of the transportation of grain from the Ukraine ports around the globe. Socres of ships laded with tons of wheat and grain stuck in the black sea for many days due to the blockade. Finally, a UN-brokered deal in July eased Russia’s naval blockade and reopened three key Ukrainian ports. The first vessel left Ukraine’s port of Odesa on August 1 carrying more than 26,000 metric tons of corn. Since Russia and Ukraine signed the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative in Turkey on July 22, more than 9 million tonnes of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soya have been exported. 

Why Russia backed out of the Deal?

Ukraine has alledgedly launched a massive drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, according to Russia. It also accused British troops of being involved in Saturday’s attack and blown out gas pipeline last month. Ukraine, so far, has denied all these allegations of the attack and called it move ‘rather predicatable’.

In its response, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia was “peddling false claims of an epic scale”. A statement by the foreign ministry in Moscow said: “The Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the ‘Black Sea Initiative’, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”

US President Joe Biden denounced the move as “purely outrageous” and said it would increase starvation. Biden said there is “no reason for them to do that”, news agency AFP reported. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it,” Biden said.

How it will impact the world?

The deal has helped to avert the food crisis by exporting staple food and fertilizers from Ukraine to the rest of the world. It has been touted as a very critical deal for bringing food security around the globe.

The global prices of food, which was eased earlier, will increase again and the inflation will import to other countries like India.