ANKARA (Bloomberg) - Turkey is holding talks with Russia after Moscow pulled out of the July agreement to allow Ukrainian crop shipments, a pact seen as critical to alleviate the global hunger crisis.


Russia said Saturday that it was suspending the agreement, blaming strikes on its naval fleet, and on Sunday suggested without evidence that the drone attacks were launched from the Odesa region, epicenter of the grain export program. 


In a statement posted on Twitter, Turkey said Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was speaking with counterparts, reminding them that the export initiative, which has seen millions of tons of foodstuffs shipped since August, is "for the good of the entire humanity and that crises can be solved through goodwill and dialogue."  


Senior Russian officials have spent weeks criticizing the export deal ahead of a Nov. 19 renewal deadline, and Ukraine accused Russia of delaying progress through the safe-passage corridor to create a growing backlog of ships.


If the corridor remains closed, it could again send shocks through global crop markets, exacerbating hunger and adding to food inflation. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest wheat, corn and vegetable oil providers, and the bulk of its exports go by sea. Even before Russia's latest move, many food importing nations have been struggling to pay for purchases because of the soaring dollar and strained budgets.


"The initiative provided needed grains and oilseeds to a hungry world," said Joseph Glauber, a former chief economist at the US Department of Agriculture who now serves as a senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. 


The grain corridor has had an key impact on world supplies since opening three months ago -- Ukraine has shipped about 9.3 million tons of goods, and prices for corn and wheat have retreated from the highs seen earlier in the year. But exporters and officials have been warning for weeks about the ballooning backlog of ships waiting for inspection to proceed.


A disruption to the Black Sea Grain Initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further deepening the global food security crisis just as winter arrives in many countries.


Millions of tons of crops are waiting at sea and ports -- 176 vessels with more than two million tons of cargo have accumulated in the grain corridor, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Saturday. The deal, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, required all vessels to be inspected before entering or leaving Ukrainian ports.


Outbound vessels that have already reached Istanbul are being inspected Sunday and Monday, but no new grain ships will sail from Ukraine for now, the defense department said. Earlier, Ukraine's infrastructure minister said a 40,000-ton cargo of wheat purchased under the World Food Programme and bound for Ethiopia was loaded but couldn't leave port.


Russia's announcement that it will suspend the deal indefinitely -- blaming drone strikes against its Black Sea fleet off Sevastopol, Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 -- drew widespread criticism. US President President Joseph Biden said it will increase starvation, describing the move as "outrageous."


Russia claimed, without any evidence, that Ukraine launched drones from off the coast of the port city of Odesa, which is more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Sevastopol -- and that one of the drones may have been launched from a civilian grain ship. 


Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, called Russia's claims "invented" in comments to Bloomberg News on Sunday. 


"Since the deal took effect, Russia hinted many times that it was ready to disrupt it," he said. "It is the usual Russian tactic -- to break its promises, to violate agreements, to blackmail and threaten." Moscow is looking for leverage ahead of the G-20 meeting in Indonesia in mid-November, Podolyak added.


The United Nations coordination center for the Black Sea grain initiative said late Saturday that it was "discussing next steps" after Russia's move to exit the pact.  


The grain-corridor deal faced hurdles and skepticism from the start, as insurers and vessel owners weighed the risks of sending cargoes through the Black Sea as the war raged on. Russian strikes on the port of Odesa a day after the deal was signed served as a stark reminder of the risks.
And there is still lots left to ship. Ukrainian silos were already overflowing with last year's crops when the corridor opened and farmers are now reaping a new harvest, while planting wheat and barley that will be collected next year. And with hundreds of grain trucks lining the road toward the Odesa ports, the effort took on a growing urgency as the November deadline to renew the deal drew closer.


Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly complained about the deal, saying not enough shipments were being sent to poor nations. Russia has also said its own grain and agricultural goods were not being allowed the same access to global markets, although the US Department of Agriculture still estimates it will be the world's top wheat exporter this season.


However, claims that developing nations aren't benefiting from the safe-corridor deal aren't backed up by data, which show a considerable segment of the shipments have gone to these countries. 


While discussions have been held about extending the deal, the recent escalation in the war had raised concerns about the prospect that the corridor will remain open after the deadline. 


Amir Abdulla, UN coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, said earlier this month that one of the key negotiating points for Russia was that it wanted to see a pipeline that transports its ammonia to Ukraine's Odesa port for shipment reopened as part of the agreement.

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