White House: Disruption of the Grain Agreement will cost Russia huge losses

The White House commented on the situation with the Grain Agreement, which expires on July 17 due to Russia’s wishes.

So far, Russia has not declared that it wants to continue the Grain Agreement, US President’s National Security Adviser Jacob Sullivan told CBS News in an interview.

“If they do pull out of the deal, the rest of the world will look at this and say that Russia has turned its back on ensuring that countries in the Global South, Africa, Latin America and Asia can get the food they need at affordable prices,” the adviser said. .

The official also noted that Russia will suffer reputational losses if it completely blocks the operation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

“I think that this will cost Russia huge diplomatic costs in the future. So Volodymyr Putin will have to make a choice,” Sullivan said.

He added that the US is ready for any scenario and is closely working on it with Ukraine.

On July 14, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that he and the President of the Russian Federation had reached a mutual understanding regarding the importance of continuing the Grain Agreement.

However, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov later denied Erdogan’s statement.

We will remind you that on July 16, the last vessel carrying Ukrainian agricultural products within the “grain corridor” left the Odesa port. Bulk carrier TQ Samsun will send 23.5 thousand tons of corn and 15.3 thousand tons of rapeseed to the Netherlands.