It agreed last July to allow ships to export grain and other foods from Ukrainian ports through a safe corridor in the Black Sea to the rest of the world.
Ships have continued to use the corridor, but Russia’s announcement has pushed up international food prices.
How much food has been shipped from Ukraine?
After Russia invaded Ukraine, its navy imposed a blockade on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, trapping about 20 million tonnes of grain meant for export inside the country, along with other foodstuffs such as maize and sunflower oil.
Since Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of food, this caused food prices to soar worldwide.
However, the two sides signed the Black Sea initiative on 22 July, allowing for a safe corridor for shipping.
The first ship sailed from Ukraine on 1 August and up until 28 October, more than 9.3 million tonnes of food has been exported through the Black Sea, according to the UN.
In September, Ukraine exported four million tonnes of food through the Black Sea.
Before Russia’s invasion, it had been shipping five million tonnes every month.
One reason why exports have not hit their pre-war level is that many companies refuse to send their cargo ships into the Black Sea.
“They’re still afraid of their ships hitting a mine or getting attacked by the Russians,” says David Osler, of the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.
Russia announced on Saturday that it would be pulling out of the deal and shipping from Ukrainian ports was suspended.
However, ships loaded with foodstuffs started sailing again on Monday.
Where has the food been sent?
Some food has gone directly to the poorest countries in the world, and some has been shipped to countries where people are at risk of starvation, under UN humanitarian relief programmes.
However, UN figures show that the bulk of Ukrainian food exported in the last three months has been going to Spain, Turkey, Italy, China and Netherlands.
In pre-war years, the top importers of Ukrainian wheat were Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
The UN said in September that just under 30% had gone to lower-income countries, while 44% had been shipped to high-income countries.
However, the resumption of Ukrainian food exports across the world helped to lower international food prices between July and the end of October, judging by the UN’s FAO food price index.
How has the safe sea corridor been working?
Russia and Ukraine both signed deals with Turkey to establish a corridor from Odessa, and two neighbouring ports, to the Istanbul strait.
Grain ships travel in a narrow corridor through the Black Sea
This corridor is 310 nautical miles long and three nautical miles wide.
Ukrainian vessels guide grain ships in and out of port through mines that Ukrainian forces laid.
Turkish personnel inspect the ships for weapons, at the request of the Russians.
The agreement was due to expire after 120 days, in mid-November, but there had been hopes it would be renewed.
What is happening to food prices now?
Russia is temporarily suspending the Black Sea corridor deal, saying that it “will not be able to guarantee the safety” of ships sailing through it.
It says a ship using the corridor was involved in an attack on its naval base at Sevastopol (although the UN says there were no ships in the corridor at the time of the attack).
Cargo ships have been continuing to use the corridor, after Ukraine, Turkey and the UN reassured shipping companies the corridor would still be safe.
However, the global price of wheat on the world’s commodity exchanges jumped by over 5%, and maize prices jumped by 2%, on the first day of trading on food exchanges after Russia’s made its announcement.
It is thought many traders are buying extra stocks of grain and maize in case Russia decides to take further action to shut down the Black Sea corridor.
How could Ukraine export food without using the Black Sea?
When Russia blockaded Ukraine’s ports following its invasion in February, Ukraine tried to export as much produce as it could by land, using lorries and trains.
The EU set up what it called “solidarity lanes,” so that Ukrainian grain could be shipped from ports on the Baltic Sea, and also from the Romanian port of Constanta.
However, a lack of road and rail capacity means that Ukraine can export only 10% of its grain at most by land.
