Zelenskyy Says Holds Meeting With Guterres In Kiev To Discuss Grain Deal Extension

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he had met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and discussed the extension and expansion of the grain deal brokered by the United Nations last year

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2023) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he had met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and discussed the extension and expansion of the grain deal brokered by the United Nations last year.

"I am pleased to welcome United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN delegation to Kyiv today - for the third time since the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian president said that the parties discussed the extension and expansion of the grain deal, as well as the exchange of prisoners of war with Russia.

Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN struck a deal in July 2022 to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships carrying food and fertilizers out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

It is part of a UN- and Turkey-brokered package agreement that also includes a memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN and unblocks exports of Russian grain and fertilizers in the Black Sea. The agreement was extended in November and is now set to expire in less than two weeks, on March 18. However, a source told Sputnik that the extension of the deal was deadlocked.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov again accused the West of "shamelessly burying" the grain deal, saying that the exports of Russian agricultural products around the world were being blatantly hindered. The Russian Mission to the UN previously stated the country's fertilizers have not been shipped and cannot enter places like Syria even in the form of humanitarian aid.