Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is actively examining Türkiye’s initiative to set up peace discussions with Ukraine and revive the landmark grain deal.
In an interview with Russian state news agency RIA, Lavrov commended Türkiye’s overall efforts, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s personal role in seeking a resolution to the Ukraine conflict.
Lavrov recalled that Türkiye had previously facilitated the drafting of the only peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, as well as agreements that enabled Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, later known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
“These agreements were later rejected or unimplemented by Kyiv,” he noted. “The Ukrainian side declined to finalize the draft peace treaty, and they exploited the Black Sea corridor to conduct attacks and provocations against Russian vessels and coastal infrastructure.”
Lavrov also pointed out that Russia’s part of the deal, which aimed to normalize access to global markets for its agricultural products and fertilizers, has yet to be fulfilled.
“President Vladimir Putin affirmed during his meeting with President Erdoğan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan that Russia is open to continuing discussions on Black Sea navigation. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed similar views, and all proposals are now under review by the relevant authorities,” he said.
Türkiye first hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the Mediterranean city of Antalya in March 2022.
Those efforts led to the landmark Black Sea grain deal in 2022, but Moscow did not extend the agreement after July 2023, citing restrictions on Russian grain exports.
Russia quit the grain deal in July, complaining that not enough was being done to improve its own exports. Russian demands as part of the grain deal, such as the inclusion of the state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank in the SWIFT international payment system had not been met and are unlikely to be met in the future as Ukraine opposes to advantage Russia in any way.
Since then, Kyiv has launched what it calls a temporary humanitarian corridor to break Russia’s de facto blockade.
