The UN has agreed to Russia's conditions for resuming the grain deal, the German newspaper Bild reports, referring to a letter from the organization's Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. According to these data, the UN has proposed a number of measures, including insurance of Russian ships, permission to dock in European ports, reconnection of Rosselkhoznadzor to the SWIFT system and the return of Russian assets frozen in the European Union. These measures are supposed to be implemented for the resumption of the Black Sea initiative related to the grain deal. According to the German publication, the implementation of these measures will «satisfy the requirements» of Russia. The grain deal was signed in 2022 between Russia, Turkey, the UN and Ukraine and involved the export of Russian and Ukrainian products to world markets. In July 2023, Russia announced the termination of this deal, stating that some of its conditions regarding Russian exports were not met. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Russia will return to the Black Sea initiative when all the terms of the deal are fulfilled. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that in order to resume the Black Sea initiative, it is necessary to create a system of mutual guarantees and that this is one of the important tasks of the UN.
