If grain deal situation doesn't change, it will be terminated - Lavrov

NAIROBI. May 29 (Interfax) - The Black Sea Grain Initiative will cease to function if the current situation does not change, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"As concerns the Black Sea initiative's future... If everything remains as it is, and it looks like this is what's going to be, it should be assumed that it doesn't function any longer," Lavrov said at a press conference in Nairobi in conclusion of his visit to Kenya.

As concerns exports of Ukrainian foodstuffs under the Black Sea initiative, "less than three percent of the 30 million tonnes exported has found its way to the poorest countries," he said.

"The Russia-UN memorandum has not been implemented at all. We have an opportunity to ship our agricultural products bypassing the Russia-UN memorandum mechanisms, but definitely, if the UN secretary-general manages to implement everything he has called for, which the memorandum stipulates, I think the effect on the food and fertilizer market would be much more positive," he said.

"The process is moving ahead extremely slowly, and we can't help qualifying steps by the European Union and its members as outright sabotage of food security objectives," he said.