End of grain deal must sow seeds for ceasefire in Ukraine

Now may be the optimum time to pursue a halt to hostilities, writes Mary Dejevsky – however hard that might look right now from Kyiv

Does Ukraine have to be the sole arbiter about when and whether to talk? (AP)

The year-old agreement that allowed grain ships to leave Ukrainian ports without threat of Russian attack was always precarious, and something of an anomaly in a war notably short on diplomatic efforts. But it was not as one-sided as often presented. Russia benefited, too, in that its ships – carrying food and fertiliser – were also given safe passage. As such, it was a classic bargain.

But it is one that may now be at an end, with renewed Russian assaults on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and the threat of food shortages much further afield. And if the agreement really is over, one of the safety valves helping to contain the war and one of the lifelines for Ukraine’s battered economy will be lost. Regrettably, this could lead to a spread of the fighting, when it could be a spur to the very opposite: urgent international pressure on both sides to consider a ceasefire and, it must be hoped, wider talks.