Ukraine Recap: Grain Deal Renewal Is Coming Down to the Wire

The Black Sea safe-transit deal that’s allowed Ukraine to export millions of tons of grain in the past year expires on Monday, and a potential decision by Russia to renew it is coming down to the wire. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters he hopes a letter sent to Vladimir Putin by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week will help to secure an extension of pact. So far Russia has made no statement on extending the deal, Putin says he’s still deliberating, and Moscow has frequently derided the pact as unfair to its interests.

Putin told a Russian newspaper that he offered Wagner mercenary forces the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under the same commander when he met with them after last month’s failed mutiny, the Associated Press reported. “All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve,” Putin told Kommersant. “And nothing would have changed for them. A group of Wagner mercenaries was shown in a Belarusian defense ministry video on Friday, training territorial troops in the Russian ally, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the capital Minsk.