Once again, the markets remain in feverish anticipation of the outcome of the Black Sea Corridor. "The Kremlin will have to decide whether to extend the grain deal in the Black Sea, which expires on July 18, and this will be a major factor in the direction of price development in the coming weeks," believes one of the authoritative analysts of the grain market, Ben Potter.

"If Russia does not agree to extend the deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertilizers from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely that Western countries will continue to cooperate with UN representatives helping Moscow in its exports," the head of the United Nations Humanitarian Aid.

This statement is fundamentally different from the position of Russia, according to which the West has not taken concrete actions so far in terms of facilitating the export of grain and fertilizers. What's more, the UN announced that they are considering the Russian proposal to create a subsidiary of the Russian Rosselkhozbank, which will be able to connect to the SWIFT international interbank system. However, this was denied by the Russian side.

"We have never offered an option to open a subsidiary in the territory of the enemy jurisdiction, although the text of the sanctions mentions that SWIFT can be used by subsidiaries of banks abroad and by subsidiaries with financial participation of Russia below 50 .%," said the first deputy executive director of the bank Kiril Levin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the future of the deal with the Turkish President. "We are working on how long we can extend the deal beyond July 17. Hopefully it will be renewed at least once every three months, not every two months. We will make efforts in this regard and try to increase the duration to two years," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Zelensky.

More than 32 million tons of corn, wheat and other cereals were exported from Ukraine under the agreement. Russia faces criticism citing the fact that poor countries never get enough grain, but the UN counters by explaining that they have benefited those countries after helping to lower food prices by more than 20% worldwide scale.