Russia and Turkey are close to mutual understanding on Ukrainian grain
On June 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. The ministers will discuss “prospects for replacing the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks”, the last meeting of which took place at the end of March with the mediation of Turkey. In addition, as Cavusoglu announced on May 31, the topic of discussions with Lavrov is the export of Ukrainian production from the ports of southern Ukraine blocked in connection with the Russian special operation. On June 7, the issue of “ensuring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea Sea, the relationship with the initial problem of exporting the exemption from the territory of Ukraine” was discussed by the Ministers of Defense of Russia and Turkey Sergei Shoigu and Tulusi Akar, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
June 6 edition of Politico with references to sources about the US refusal to withdraw the penalty from Russia in exchange for ensuring the export of export goods from Ukrainian ports. According to the interlocutors of the publication, Washington is waiting for serious progress in the “Russia-UN negotiations” on the supply of grain, in order to see if Moscow will refuse the demands to remove the sentence. Republican Senator Jim Rish said that demanding that Russia ease the arrest in exchange for lifting the blockade with a port order is tantamount to blackmail. Earlier, Lavrov said that we are talking about sanctions against Russian shipping, which prevent the supply of additional state authorities to the market, as well as the transport of Ukrainian.