YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday accused Russia of “weaponizing food” after Moscow halted its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has kept food supplies flowing out of Ukraine despite the war.

The deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

“So the result of Russia’s action today – weaponizing food, using it as a tool, as a weapon in its war against Ukraine – will be to make food harder to come by in places that desperately need it, and have prices rise.  We’re already seeing the market react to this as prices are going up,” Blinken said at a press conference.

He said that the deal had a “tremendously positive benefit”.

The U.S. Secretary of State added that Washington and Kiev ‘will look at whether there are any other options’.

“….the Ukrainians and we, others will look at whether there are any other options, but the challenge is this:  If Russia is ending this initiative and sending a message that grain cannot and other food products cannot leave Ukraine unimpeded, even if there are other options, I think it will likely have a profound chilling effect on the ability to pursue them as other countries, companies, shippers, et cetera will be very concerned about what happens to their ships and to their personnel if Russia is opposing the – any export of food products from Ukraine.  The whole point of this was to have a voluntary agreement that involved all of the relevant parties that was endorsed by the United Nations to make sure that there was safety, security, predictability in moving food out of Ukraine and to places that were desperately in need of it. So in the absence of that, I think, yes, we’ll look at – to see what else can be done to find other ways to get Ukrainian food products on the world market, including, again, as we’ve, as Ukraine has already been doing, moving things out through rail and by road.  But in terms of the volumes necessary, it’s really hard to replace what’s now being lost as a result of Russia weaponizing food,” he said.

Moscow announced on Monday it wouldn't extend the Ukraine grain deal over alleged non-compliance by other parties. In a statement reported by RT, the Russian Foreign Ministry added that Russia will no longer provide security guarantees for civilian vessels traversing the formerly exempted corridor in the Black Sea.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that this latest decision “means the recall of maritime navigation security guarantees, the discontinuation of the maritime humanitarian corridor [and] the reinstatement of the ‘temporarily dangerous area’ regime in the north-western Black Sea.” Russian diplomats went on to accuse Ukraine of using the humanitarian corridor to carry out attacks on Russian targets.  

As for the Ukrainian grain shipments that were facilitated by the deal, the ministry claimed that the vast majority of those ended up in Europe, with several countries there allegedly lining their pockets.  

The statement pointed out that the whole mechanism, which was launched last summer, had ostensibly been designed to help avert famine in poorer nations.