UN to support easing of sanctions against Russia for the sake of grain deal – Bild

The United Nations will support the easing of sanctions against Russia for the sake of the grain deal, the German tabloid Bild reports.

The publication claims that this is stated in a confidential letter from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

It is noted that the plan for a significant easing of sanctions includes four points:

• return of Russian state-owned banks to the SWIFT international payment system
• insurance of Russian ships against Ukrainian strikes in the Black Sea
• facilitating their access to the ports of Germany and other European countries
• unblocking the frozen assets of the Russian Federation in Europe

The Bild article claims that the UN is doing everything possible to restore the grain deal, but “not to help Ukraine”, but because “almost 3% (725 thousand tons) of the suspended grain exports went to the UN World Food Program”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has officially proposed that Turkey open a grain corridor without Russia. Negotiations on this issue may take place in the coming days.

Earlier it became known that Turkey and the UN propose to ease sanctions against Russia in exchange for its return to the grain deal. Turkey’s Foreign Minister said at a press conference with his Russian counterpart Lavrov that the UN has prepared a new package of proposals and that they consider them a suitable basis for the restoration of the grain corridor.

Tags: UN, Black Sea grain deal