UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2022) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who was involved in negotiating the grain deal, will travel to Ukraine from December 12-15, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
"At this point, he is just going to Ukraine," Dujarric told a briefing.
Griffiths has recently frequently visited Moscow. This time, he is going only to Ukraine, Dujarric said.
Russia is still having issues with exportation of fertilizers onto the global markets - an issue which the UN is supposed to deal with.
In late November, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during the visit of the leaders of Hungary, Belgium, Lithuania and Poland to Kiev, officially launched the "Grain From Ukraine" initiative, under which Ukraine should send at least 60 ships with grain to countries threatened by famine and drought, namely Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Congo, Kenya and Nigeria, by the end of spring of 2023.
On July 22, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations struck a deal to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that most of the ships carrying Ukrainian grain did not make it to the world's poorest countries and ended up in Europe. At the same time, Putin has voiced his concerns that Russian products are not entering the global markets as promised by the agreement.
Since then, the grain deal, originally scheduled to expire on November 19, has been extended for another 120 days.
