The mechanism can work in a trilateral format – Vasyl Bodnar on the Grain Deal

As Russia has backed out of the Black Sea grain deal can proceed in the trilateral format with Ukraine, Türkiye, and the United Nations, as the parties to the agreement to fulfill their own obligations. At the same time, it is hoped that the Turkish side will convince the aggressor country to return to the previous agreements in bilateral talks with Ukraine.

Vasyl Bodnar, Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Türkiye, made the relevant statement during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. 

“Ukraine’s President made a proposal to the brokers, Türkiye and the UN, to continue this initiative in a trilateral format. By continuing our participation in the deal, Ukraine has obligations to both the UN and Türkiye, and the solution sets a mechanism for dealing with two fighting states that has been agreed upon and is a trilateral format function. Let’s face it, Russia was not a constructive participant in the process itself, and its role was actually to ensure that they did not attack the ports and ships,” he explained.

The ambassador emphasized that Türkiye and the UN “have full capabilities to ship inspections for the absence of weapons, military equipment, and no products limited to grain transporting.”

“This is the essence of our proposal to continue using what we have, but of course, this does not exclude the possibility of working on alternative formats and alternative opportunities,” he explained.

At the same time, Vasyl Bodnar noted that one of the alternative proposals to use the states bordering the Black Sea, Romania, and Bulgaria, to export Ukrainian grain has not yet been discussed at the official level.

“So far, there is an agreed Grain Corridor within the Grain Initiative. It has been agreed upon, and both the intermediaries and the aggressor country have agreed to it.  And no one has canceled the grain corridor functioning itself. The proposal to use Romania and Bulgaria with coastlines on the Black Sea was my suggestion as one of the alternative ideas to resolve exports. But this option has not yet been discussed at the official level,” he emphasized.

In addition, Vasyl Bodnar also emphasized that Türkiye is interested in continuing the grain initiative and has leverage over Russia.

“We hope that the relevant negotiations will take place at the bilateral level, and we will wait for the results,” he summarized.

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