From May 7, inspections for ships en route to Ukrainian ports as part of the grain initiative were suspended due to the position of the Russian delegation in the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC); after statements about the continuation of the initiative, the Russian Federation agreed to resume entrance inspections only in two ports out of three, Yuriy Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, said.

"As of the morning of May 19, it became known that Russia agreed to resume the inspection of the incoming fleet at the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk, but refused to inspect ships heading for the port of Pivdenny," he said in a blitz interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Vaskov clarified that 62 ships are queuing, waiting for inspection, and some of them have been saying for several months.

He confirmed that after the ship DSM Capella under the flag of Barbados with 30,000 tonnes of corn left the port of Chornomorsk for Turkey on May 17, there are no other ships participating in the initiative in Ukrainian ports yet.

"And this is the result of Russia's destructive policy, the purpose of which is to limit the work of the initiative," the deputy Minister of Restoration emphasized.

According to him, Russia's actions in the JCC lead to a significant increase in the cost of logistics and an increase in prices for its components: insurance, freight, etc.

"That's why we see only 62 ships in the queue today. Because from a certain moment the charter of additional ships really stopped, because it was not clear what would happen. The market always needs predictability," Vaskov said.

He recalled that with the normal functioning of the grain initiative, Ukraine is ready to export 6 million tonnes of agricultural products per month from three ports, but since November, Russia has been finding new reasons to limit exports and suspend the grain initiative, as a result, from the beginning of May to May 17, there were less than 1 million tonnes exported, and in April - 2.7 million tonnes.

As the deputy minister confirmed, in April the representatives of the Russian Federation in the JCC crossed out the ships presented according to the plans of Ukrainian port operators and offered their own list of ships.

"Of course, we did not agree to this. After that, there was also a stop for a few days. As a result, the UN and Turkey proposed moving to the principle of a 'live queue' - submitting ships that physically arrived earlier for inspection. And we agreed with this, although this does not meet the plans of our port operators. But we agreed, because it is better than the initiative will not work at all, and this is also transparent," the representative of Ukraine described the development of events.

He added that the work continued in this way for about a week, but then the Russian Federation unilaterally stopped the inspection of ships heading to the port of Pivdenny, and later to other ports.

According to him, as expected, the "oldest" ships, which have been waiting in line for the longest time, should be the first to go through the entrance inspection. If it happens today, such vessels may be in port in Ukraine the day after tomorrow.

"We will see how it will be now. So far, as I said, the initiative has not worked. So far, there is no ongoing inspection at the entrance," Vaskov said in conclusion.