The Black Sea grain deal is set to expire next week, but it can be extended if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meet as planned.
The Black Sea deal, mediated by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022, allowed Ukrainian grain encased by Russia’s invasion to be safely shipped from Black Sea ports in an effort to avert a global food crisis.
According to Russia’s RIA news agency, Moscow’s position, which it has repeated numerous times in recent weeks, is that there is no optimism for the extension of the deal.
On Saturday, Erdogan announced that Putin would be visiting Turkey in August and that he was lobbying Russia to extend the grain deal, which was set to expire on July 17.
The Kremlin said over the weekend that there was no planned phone contact and that a meeting between the two presidents was uncertain at best.
The Kremlin was incensed by Ankara’s decision on July 8 to return to Kyiv five arrested Ukrainian commanders that defended a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol for weeks.