Russia's Influence on Ukraine's Grain Exports to Decrease - US State Department

James O'Brien, the head of the US State Department's Sanctions Coordination Office, has stated that Russia's leverage on Ukrainian grain exports will diminish in the near future.

His remarks were reported by Reuters.

One of the factors contributing to this is Russia's attacks on Ukrainian ships, which will have a negative impact on pricing, he explained. According to the State Department representative, this will lead to an increase in insurance premiums, causing costs to rise for the Russian Federation.

He added that this could even compel Moscow to reconsider its withdrawal from the grain agreement.

O'Brien also noted that more vessels will be able to depart from Ukrainian ports.

"In the next few weeks, I believe there will be changes in the factors that led Russia to believe it would benefit from exiting the grain agreement," he summarized.

James O'Brien, the Chair of the Sanctions Coordination Office at the US State Department, mentioned that world leaders at the UN General Assembly this week were discussing efforts to reinstate an agreement from which Russia withdrew in July.

Western countries have accused Russia of using food as a weapon by exiting the Black Sea agreement, which helped lower global food prices.

Recall that in July 2022, the UN, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to help alleviate the global food crisis triggered by Russia's war against Ukraine.

In July 2023, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, announced Russia's unilateral withdrawal from the grain agreement between Russia, Turkey, and the UN.

Since then, Ukrainian ports along the Danube River have become a vital export corridor for Ukrainian grain, and Russia has subjected these ports and elevators to regular rocket and air strikes. Additionally, Russian military ships have begun blockading vessels carrying Ukrainian agricultural products.

As The Gaze reported, in response, on August 10, Ukraine proposed new temporary routes for commercial ships heading to/from Ukrainian Black Sea ports to bypass Russia's de facto Black Sea blockade following Russia's withdrawal from the agreement.

These routes have primarily been used to facilitate the departure of civilian vessels that have been stranded in Ukrainian ports like Chornomorsk, Odesa, and Pivdennyi since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The cargo ship "Resilient Africa," which successfully arrived in the Turkish Bosphorus on September 21, became the first Ukrainian grain vessel to enter and exit the Black Sea after Russia exited the grain agreement and instituted a military blockade of the Black Sea.