UNITED NATIONS: Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, is taking a sort of victory lap in Ukraine to celebrate the one small breakthrough for the United Nations, which has been crippled by vetoes from acting on Russia's invasion of that country.
While visiting Lviv in Ukraine, Guterres said that the agreement to allow the export of Ukrainian foodgrains "reflects a victory for diplomacy". He told reporters in Lviv that it will benefit "vulnerable people in every corner of the world," stressing that after the agreements were signed, global "wheat prices decreased by as much as 8%."
The UN head worked tirelessly to obtain Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey to open a safe route for ships to resume exporting food grains from Ukraine, which the UN proudly refers to as the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The arrangement reached in July also increased the profile of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turish President, who has emerged as the interlocutor between Ukraine and Russia, and whose country plays a major role in facilitating the exports through its Straits of Bosphorus.
The diplomacy behind the grain project was viewed by Guterres, who met with Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday in Lviv, as a strategy for putting an end to the war.
He made a plea to them, saying, "for this to continue, overcome all hurdles in a spirit of compromise and permanently settle all disputes." The parties had worked diligently and in good faith to keep the food coming.
15 ships left Istanbul for Ukraine to stock up on grain and other food supplies, while 21 ships had left Ukrainian ports in less than a month, according to the UN chief.
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