Russia agrees to extend Ukraine grain deal in boost for global food security

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russia has agreed to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea, helping ease a global food crisis exacerbated by the war Russia launched more than a year ago.

Mr Erdogan said on Wednesday that the deal would be extended for two months.

The deal was brokered by the UN and Turkey last summer. It came with a separate agreement to ease shipments of Russian food and fertiliser that Moscow insists has not been applied.

Russia had set a Thursday deadline for its concerns to be ironed out or had threatened to bow out.

The issue was pressing with Ukraine’s wheat harvest coming up in June and the need to sell that crop in July.

Ukraine can send its food by land through Europe, but those routes have a lower capacity than sea shipments and have stirred disunity in the European Union.