Broker Marsh suspends Ukrainian grain insurance program

NEW YORK. July 19 (Interfax) - Insurance broker Marsh has announced the suspension of a mechanism to insure grain food shipments along Ukrainian grain corridors after Russia ended the Black Sea grain export deal.

The mechanism provided insurance coverage for cargo shipped from Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

The UN, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine signed two documents in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 on the creation of a corridor to ship out grain from three Ukrainian ports - Chernomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny, as well as to lift barriers to exports of Russian foodstuffs and fertilizers. The arrangement was extended for 120 days in November 2022, until mid-March, and then again twice for two months.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the deal has expired, but that Russia will immediately resume implementing it as soon as its conditions of the agreements are fulfilled.