UN seeks extension of key Ukraine-Russia wartime grain deal

By JAMEY KEATEN and KARL RITTER
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — Senior U.N. officials are hosting Russian envoys in Geneva in a bid to extend an export agreement amid the war with Ukraine and prevent a potential new spike in world food prices. The meeting is taking place on Monday. Ukraine and Russia struck a deal last July despite being at war. It allows Ukraine as one of the world’s key breadbaskets to ship food and fertilizer from three of its Black Sea ports. The 120-day agreement that helped take some of the sting out of rising global food prices was renewed last November. That extension expires on Saturday. Moscow has been frustrated that a parallel deal to allow exports of Russian food and fertilizer has had little effect.