More than 150 vessels are stuck in the queue for inspection in Turkey

As of October 14, there are already more than 150 vessels waiting for an inspection off the coast of Turkey. But the UN does not blame russia for the delays.

At the entrance to the Black Sea, 85 vessels await inspection, at the exit from the Black Sea – 73 vessels. The official reason for the delay is too few inspectors. The control groups do not have time to process the number of vessels plying the grain corridor. Now the time of ship inspection has increased to 10-15 days. It is worth noting that in the first week of operation of the “grain corridor”, the inspection of vessels lasted five to six days.

The delays point to the need to increase the number of inspectors to meet demand, writes the Financial Times. Ukraine aims to export as much grain as possible to make room in its elevators for the new crop.

UN representative Amir Abdullah, who is responsible for coordinating the Black Sea Grain Initiative, admitted that only five groups of inspectors, which include representatives from russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN, are trying to meet the growing demand.

“Basically, we need all sides to agree that inspectors need to be added,” Abdullah told the Financial Times.

However, other sources of the publication believe that russia is reluctant to send additional inspectors that could eliminate the delay. This is indirectly confirmed by the comment of the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov.

“At this time, there is no decision by all members [of the monitoring center] to increase the number of inspections in order to avoid further accumulation of vessels awaiting inspection,” Vaskov said.

The UN believes the backlog is a sign of the grain deal’s success, with more ships arriving than anyone predicted. The UN does not see this as a deliberate delay on the part of russian federation and believes that insufficient training of some crews and ship owners is to blame. Allegedly, it was they who increased the burden on inspectors.

The UN reacts rather sluggishly to the fact that russia has already started blackmailing the world by disrupting the Istanbul Agreement. So, in particular, it became known that russian federation sent a list of its own requirements regarding the “grain corridor” to the UN. In case of their failure, the terrorist state threatens to withdraw from the agreements.

According to the Permanent Representative of russia to the UN in Geneva, Gennadiy Gatilov, moscow sent a letter to the UN Secretary General on Wednesday. The claims should be discussed during a meeting of UN representatives with the russian side in moscow on Sunday, October 16.

“If we see that nothing is happening on the russian side – the export of russian grain and fertilizers – then, I’m sorry, we will have to look at it differently,” said the russian ambassador.

As USM wrote earlier, the list of claims that russia has made to the UN is currently unknown. It looks as if russia is trying in any way to sabotage the continuation of the agreement – and even invents some sanctions for this, which do not exist.

So, for example, russian exports of grain or fertilizers do not suffer from Western sanctions in any way, because they do not fall under them. Only self-sanctions work: companies voluntarily refuse to cooperate with a terrorist country, due to which russia could potentially feel a decrease in the volume of grain exports.

However, russian federation has a “compensation” scheme: it quite effectively steals grain from the occupied territories of Ukraine and earns hundreds of millions of dollars from it. Therefore, “claims” to the operation of the grain corridor are another act of groundless blackmail and an attempt to “drive” Ukraine and its allies into an economic crisis.

We will remind you, that the “grain agreement” on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea expires on November 18-19. It is currently unknown whether this agreement will be extended.