The United Nations has found alternative ways to help the Russian Agricultural Bank handle payments related to grain exports, UN Conference on Trade and Development chief Rebeca Grynspan said on Wednesday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2023) The United Nations has found alternative ways to help the Russian Agricultural Bank handle payments related to grain exports, UN Conference on Trade and Development chief Rebeca Grynspan said on Wednesday.
"With respect to the Russian Agricultural Bank, we have been able to secure alternatives, alternative ways to the SWIFT problem," Grynspan told journalists.
Now the UN is trying to provide a more expedited way to conduct operations, but it is one of the problems it has not fully found solutions to, she added.
In July 22, 2022, 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. The UN, in turn, committed to facilitating Russia's food and fertilizer exports amid Western sanctions.
Moscow has since agreed to several extensions to the grain deal, which is now due to expire in mid-July, but complained that the obligations toward Russia have not been fulfilled.
In early June, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Ukrainian sabotage group had blown up the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline in the Kharkiv Region. The Kremlin said the attack would complicate an extension of the grain deal.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin has said he believes the deal will be terminated on July 18.
