Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks next week, the Kremlin announced Friday, just over six weeks after Moscow broke off a deal brokered by Ankara and the U.N. that allowed Ukrainian grain to reach world markets safely despite the 18-month war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Erdogan would meet Monday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation about when and where the two leaders might meet next as international efforts continue to patch up the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which got agrain and other food to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat.
Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other commodities that developing nations rely on.
I’m sure it’ll be something like, help us take these regions and then we will ship grain from our regions to the world.
That’s a bad joke though
Additionally, Russia bombed huge portions of Ukraine’s grain and export infrastructure. Why should Ukraine agree to stop striking Russian ships in the Black Sea just because it’s suddenly inconvenient for Russia? No, Russia pulled out of this deal and destroyed any reason to bring it back. Russia made their bed, now it’s time for them to sleep in it.
Ukraine would agree simply because their economy is in bits, they need all the money they can get. Food exports used to account for 15% of Ukrainian GDP, that’s a lot.