The Minister for the Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov announced the extension of the “grain agreement” for 120 days in accordance with the Istanbul Agreement. However, Russia began to deny this fact.

In her telegram channel, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, claims that the agreement has been extended for only 60 days. As evidence, she published a letter from Russia's permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzi and the Russian ambassadors to Turkey and Belarus.

What does Zakharova say

Maria Zakharova, citing Nebenzi's letter to the UN Secretary General, claims that Russia agreed only to a 60-day extension of the grain agreement – until May 18, 2023, with the possibility of further extension. Only now Nebenzi's letter is dated March 16, and Alexei Kubrakov announced that agreements had been reached on March 18.

Letter from Nebenzi, dated March 16

No less interesting is that Zakharova added letters from Russian ambassadors to Turkey and Belarus as evidence, but they are dated March 13. The first says that Russia is not against extending the agreement, but only for 60 days, and not against extending it, but only if agreements are reached with the UN on the export of Russian food to world markets.

Letter from the Russian Ambassador to Turkey dated March 13

At the same time, the letter from the Russian embassy in Belarus states that the Ukrainian side is informed that the extension of the agreement is possible only for 60 days, and that the extension is also possible only after the UN agreements on the export of Russian products. But here, too, the problem is the document dated March 13.

Letter from the Russian Embassy in Belarus, dated March 13

That is, these documents appeared a day before official Russian statements about their intention to extend the agreement for only 60 days, which completely contradicts the terms of the agreement, which provides for an extension of at least 120 days.

The Russian representation in the UN calls the statements about the extension of the agreement for 120 days “false”.

Probably, in Russia they don’t know how to tell the internal audience that all statements about 60 days as a “goodwill gesture” remained only statements, so now Moscow will simply prove that they extended the agreement only for 60 days, while Ukraine insisted on 120 .

How did you manage to extend the deal for 120 days?

On the air of the telethon, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Nikolay Solsky noted that the effective position of the country's leadership, who participated in the negotiations and the support of the allies who signed the agreement in Istanbul – the UN and Turkey, allowed to extend the agreement for 120 days.

The minister stressed that 120 days of extension are spelled out in the agreement. A separate discussion requires the sabotage of Russian representatives in the joint commission for checking ships on the way to and from Ukraine.