Pipeline Damage

The Kremlin has said that there would be a “negative impact” on the fate of a Black Sea grain deal from a blast that damaged a pipeline used to export Russian ammonia via Ukraine that Moscow wants restarted.

The Togliatti-Odessa pipeline, which once pumped up to 2.5 million tons of ammonia annually for global export to Ukraine’s Pivdennyi port on the Black Sea from Togliatti in western Russia, has lain idle since the start of the war in February last year.

Accusations and Demands

Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up a part of the pipeline, the world’s longest carrying ammonia, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Monday. The regional Ukrainian governor said Russia had shelled the pipeline on Tuesday. Neither side provided evidence to back their allegations.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said on Friday that the blast would be taken into account during consultations on the key wartime deal that enables Ukraine to export grain via its Black Sea ports, the RIA news agency reported.

The deal was originally brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations last July to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by conflict disrupting exports from two of the world’s leading grain suppliers. It allows Ukraine to resume exports of grain from its southern ports.

Russia has threatened to walk away from the pact on July 17 if demands to improve its own food and fertilizer exports, including restoration of the pipeline, are not met. The deal facilitates the “safe navigation” of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizers – including ammonia – for export to global markets.

Russia’s ambassador to Türkiye was separately quoted on Friday as saying there were no grounds to extend it, but that Moscow was continuing consultations with the United Nations.

Negative Impact on Grain Deal

Asked by reporters Thursday about how the damaged pipeline could affect the fate of the grain deal, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “It can only have a negative impact.”

He described it as “yet another complication in terms of extending the deal,” adding that Russia did not know “what kind of destruction” there had been to the ammonia pipeline.

U.N. officials are continuing discussions with all the parties to the deal, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

“We’re continuing our efforts through as many avenues as we can given the importance of all of this to the fight against global hunger and ensuring that the prices of food do not spike on the global market,” Dujarric told reporters.

Efforts to Facilitate Trade

To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a separate three-year agreement was also struck in July in which the United Nations agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.

Dujarric said top U.N. trade official Rebeca Grynspan is due to meet with Russian officials in Geneva on Friday “as part of our routine contacts on our efforts to facilitate the trade in Russian fertilizer and Russian grain.”

Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said earlier on Thursday that Moscow had no access to the damaged part of the pipeline and did not expect to be granted it, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that it would take between one and three months to repair the damaged section of the pipeline.