Information has appeared (unverified) in BILD media about a letter, allegedly written by UN Secretary General António Guterres to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that offers four specific steps to renew the Black Sea Initiative (also known as the "Grain Deal":
- Creating a special subdivision of the state-owned "Russian Agrarian Bank" and connecting it to SWIFT, this circumventing sanctions.
- Insuring Russian ships against Ukrainian attacks in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. This would reportedly be done by creating a "UN co-financed insurance company for Russian food and fertilizer exports.
- Unfreezing frozen assets of Russian fertilizer companies in the EU. According to BILD, Guterres promises: “The United Nations will work with the relevant national authorities and the EU authorities on the basis of these requests.”
- Allowing Russian ships carrying food and fertilizers fast and efficient access to EU ports.
There has been no official confirmation or comment of this letter or any steps mentioned above.
The article is available here (in German): https://t.co/0cBXLKBrJw