More talks needed to allow Russian exports - UN official

With Russia controlling or effectively blockading all Ukrainian Black Sea ports, grain shipments from Ukraine have stalled since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion while Moscow has blamed Western sanctions for disrupting exports of both grain and fertilizer.

More talks are needed to strike a deal on allowing exports from Russia as part of an envisaged accord to resume Ukrainian food exports, the United Nations crisis coordinator for Ukraine said on Friday.

"There was in principle agreement from Russia that they will agree to that, however there is more negotiation to be done to also ... facilitate the exports of Russia," Amin Awad told an online U.N. news briefing from Geneva. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said on Wednesday he was hopeful of easing the food crisis prompted by the war in Ukraine, but cautioned that any agreement to unblock shipments of commodities such as grain was still some way off.

The conflict has fuelled a global food crisis with surging prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies, while Russia is also a key fertilizer exporter and Ukraine a major supplier of corn and sunflower oil. With Russia controlling or effectively blockading all Ukrainian Black Sea ports, grain shipments from Ukraine have stalled since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion while Moscow has blamed Western sanctions for disrupting exports of both grain and fertilizer.