10 August 2023; MEMO: Ukraine has said that Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can bring the Black Sea grain deal "back on track", Anadolu Agency reports.
"Yes, I think he can. We know that Turkish diplomacy is working with the Russian one," Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in an interview with Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kuleba also said that they are building "alternative ways to export wheat and other products without going through the Black Sea."
"We need a certain creativity to find solutions. We will look for them by any means but, at the moment, the conditions are not there: Russia continues to attack us, she prefers war to peace," he added.
On 17 July, Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, saying that the Russian part of the agreement was not implemented. It sought the loosening of banking restrictions and the ability to ship its fertiliser before returning to the agreement.
The agreement, initially signed in July of last year in Istanbul by Turkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine, was aimed at resuming grain exports from Ukrainian ports halted due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022.
Turkiye has said that Western countries should try to address Russia's complaints and that it hopes Russia returns to the deal.
