A ship carrying grain leaves the Chornomorsk port, Ukraine. (Photo: VNA)

Continuation of the Black Sea Initiative and all parties’ commitment to honor the initiative are critically important, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

In recent weeks, the parties have discussed expanding the initiative’s expansion.

The UN and Turkey brokered the Black Sea agreement in July last year to help ease a global food crisis that was aggravated by conflict in Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters. At the same time, the UN agreed to facilitate Russia’s agricultural shipments.