The agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports, which expires on Monday, July 17, was at the heart of talks held by the United Nations and the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday. .

The talks, which began yesterday and will continue today in Ilp (in French, Terhulpen in Dutch), south of Brussels, are being held as Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed earlier yesterday that “not one” of the Russian demands had been heeded during of the negotiations for the extension of the agreement.

“The ball is in President Putin’s court,” said Mrs. von der Leyen, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by her side. “Russia has a responsibility to extend the agreement, or the consequence will be global food insecurity,” he added.

Mr. Guterres, for his part, noted that the cooperation of the UN and the EU is necessary to “rebuild a relationship of trust with the developing world”.

“Multilateral cooperation is more important than ever: to restore peace, to protect the planet, to end hunger. We don’t have a minute to waste,” added the UN Secretary-General.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed and reiterated in recent days that it sees “no reason” to extend the deal, as it continues to see obstacles to exports of its own agricultural products.

On the night of Tuesday-Wednesday a series of attacks by Russian UAVs targeted a grain export terminal in the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, home to three key food export ports.

The agreement, signed in July 2022 in Istanbul by representatives of Russia and Ukraine under the auspices of Turkey and the UN, allowed almost 33 million tons of Ukrainian grain to be exported, despite the war raging since late February 2022.