High-ranking United Nations trade representative Rebeca Grynspan visited Moscow on Oct. 9 to discuss exports of grain and fertilizer, Reuters reported.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the goal of the talks was to ensure global food markets "unimpeded access" to grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia.
The discussions also included U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths, who participated virtually.
In July 2023, Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, imposing a blockade on Ukrainian shipping routes and targeting port infrastructure with airstrikes.
The move poses a major threat to global food security. According to a U.K. intelligence report, Russia has "already destroyed enough grain to feed more than one million people for a year."
The U.N. hopes it can negotiate a revival of the grain deal, which it originally brokered along with Turkey after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. In March 2023, the U.N. was able to convince Russia to agree to an extension of the agreement.
Since the termination of the deal in July, progress has stalled. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed restoring Russia's access to the SWIFT international payment system in exchange for another extension, and later offered to improve Russia's grain and fertilizer experts.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the U.N. proposals "not realistic."
Guterres is determined "to facilitate the unimpeded access to global markets for food products and fertilizers from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation," Dujarric said.
According to Dujarric, the Oct. 9 talks in Moscow "are taking place with this goal in mind."
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
