US to continue efforts to provide safe passage for Ukrainian grain, says envoy to Kyiv

The United States will continue its efforts to felicitate the safe passage of the blockaded Ukrainian grain from the key maritime lanes in the Black Sea, US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on July 16. In a conversation held with Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Brink was informed about the ongoing negotiations with the UN and Turkey in order to establish grain transport corridors through the Black Sea. 

"Ukraine is ready to export grain to countries in need; the United States continues engaging with partners to provide safe passage for grain," she wrote on Twitter, shortly after the discussion. 

Additionally, Brink also earlier met with Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko in Kyiv to take stock of the war crimes in the Ukrainian capital. "So proud to call the beautiful city of Kyiv our home. With victory, we can't wait to realize Kyiv's future as a great European capital," the US Ambassador said. As Russia's naval blockade of the Black Sea ports has triggered logistical chaos and a global food shortage, Turkey has mediated to hold trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine and the UN to implement a plan for the safe transit of the grain. 

No possible resumption of peace talks: Russia

The Kremlin, which has agreed to resolve the longstanding issue, blaming the Ukrainian forces' scattering of mines in the sea,  clarified that there will be "no possible resumption" of peace talks even if the agreement will be signed on establishing a naval corridor. Leonid Slutsky, Moscow-appointed leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) from the breakaway oblast of Donetsk and Luhansk said, "An agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine by sea may be signed in Istanbul with the UN’s mediation next week. Of course, after that, the agreement will require implementation, and our expectations are not too high." 

Slutsky affirmed that the talks will be conducted, although he emphasised that the agreements on grain export [from the Black Sea] are no guarantee that Moscow and Kyiv will resume peace talks. He continued, "Hideous atrocities are being committed [by Ukrainian forces] including against our prisoners of war (POWs) captured in Ukraine." European Union officials also highlighted the "critical role" of naval transit for the export of grain from Ukraine via the maritime lanes in the Black Sea.