ISTANBUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Russian participation in a U.N.-brokered Ukrainian grain export deal was to resume on Wednesday.
In a speech in parliament, Erdogan said that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart that the deal would resume on Wednesday.
Russia will resume its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
Russia suspended its involvement in the deal over the weekend, saying it could not guarantee the safety of civilian ships crossing the Black Sea because of a drone attack on its fleet there.
“The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received at the moment appear sufficient, and resumes the implementation of the agreement,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that thanks to the involvement of the United Nations and Turkey, it had been possible to obtain written guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the humanitarian corridor and Ukrainian ports to conduct military operations against Russia.
The statement represented an about-turn by Moscow, which had previously said it would be risky and unacceptable for ships to continue sailing through the humanitarian corridor set up under a Turkish- and U.N.-brokered deal in July.
Meanwhile, Russia will summon Britain’s ambassador to Moscow over what it said was the involvement of British specialists in a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Russia suspended participation in a U.N.-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative on Saturday after what it said was a major drone attack on vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s defence ministry said the attack was carried out under the guidance and leadership of British navy specialists, an assertion Britain has dismissed as false.
“These actions were carried out under the guidance of British specialists,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.
“In this regard, the British ambassador will shortly be summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.”
Deborah Bronnert is Britain’s ambassador to Moscow.
Photo: A general view at grain silos in Odesa, Ukraine. EPA-EFE/MANUEL DE ALMEIDA
