By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The&nbsp;European Commission is&nbsp;helping the&nbsp;United Nations and Turkey try to extend a&nbsp;deal&nbsp;allowing the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;export of Ukraine&nbsp;grain&nbsp;and is open to "explore all solutions," a&nbsp;European&nbsp;Union spokesperson said on Thursday,&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of the&nbsp;deal's possible expiration on&nbsp;Monday.
The U.N. and Turkey brokered the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;Grain&nbsp;Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to&nbsp;help&nbsp;alleviate a global food crisis worsened by Moscow's invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and Russia are among the world's leading&nbsp;grain&nbsp;exporters.
The&nbsp;EU&nbsp;is considering connecting a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the international payment network SWIFT to allow for&nbsp;grain&nbsp;and fertilizer transactions, sources familiar with discussions told Reuters on Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Moscow allow the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;grain&nbsp;deal&nbsp;to continue for several months to give the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;time to connect a Rosselkhozbank subsidiary to SWIFT, two of those sources familiar with discussions told Reuters.
During a visit to Brussels on Thursday, Guterres told reporters that he had not yet received a response from Russia. He said his letter to Putin contained "concrete proposals that I hope can allow us to find a positive way forward."
According to TASS news agency, Putin said he had not seen the letter from Guterres proposing an extension of the&nbsp;deal, but said Russia was in contact with U.N. officials.
"We can suspend our participation in the&nbsp;deal, and if everyone once again says that all the promises made to us will be fulfilled, then let them fulfill this promise. We will immediately rejoin this&nbsp;deal," he told Russian state television.
A Kremlin spokesman later said that Russia had not taken a final decision on whether to exit the&nbsp;grain&nbsp;deal.
EU&nbsp;'OPEN TO EXPLORE SOLUTIONS'
The&nbsp;European Commission's priority is to ensure that Ukrainian&nbsp;grain&nbsp;can reach the world market and it calls on all parties to extend the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;deal, an&nbsp;EU&nbsp;spokesperson in Brussels said on Thursday.
"We are assisting the talks led by the U.N. and Turkey as required," the spokesperson said. "We are of course open to explore all solutions that contribute to our objective, whilst continuing to ensure that Russia's ability to wage war in Ukraine is hampered as much as possible."
A key demand by Moscow is the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT. It was cut off by the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;in June 2022 over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later on Thursday urged Putin to extend the&nbsp;deal. "The ball is in President Putin's court and the world is watching," she said.
Russia has threatened to ditch the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;grain&nbsp;deal&nbsp;because several demands to dispatch its own&nbsp;grain&nbsp;and fertilizer abroad have not been met. The last ship traveling&nbsp;under the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;agreement is currently loading its cargo at the Ukrainian port of Odesa&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Monday&nbsp;deadline.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he spoke with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday and that they both agreed it was "vital" to extend the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;deal.
"It is very important that there be no threat to food security anywhere in the world. And Russia must clearly realise that anyone who increases the threat of famine, particularly in critical areas of Africa, terrorises the entire world with famine," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
'BALL IN RUSSIA'S COURT'
More than 32 million tonnes of corn, wheat and other&nbsp;grains have been exported by Ukraine&nbsp;under the arrangement. Russia has complained that not enough reaches poor countries, but the U.N. argues that it has benefited those states by&nbsp;helping lower food prices more than 20% globally.
To convince Russia to agree to the&nbsp;Black&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;deal, a three-year memorandum of&nbsp;understanding was struck in July 2022&nbsp;under which U.N. officials agreed to&nbsp;help&nbsp;Russia get its food and fertilizer exports to foreign markets.
While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.
As a workaround to the lack of access to SWIFT, U.N. officials have got U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co to start processing some Russian&nbsp;grain&nbsp;export payments with reassurances from the U.S. government.
The U.N. is also working with the African Export-Import Bank to create a platform to&nbsp;help&nbsp;process transactions for Russian exports of&nbsp;grain&nbsp;and fertilizer to Africa, a U.N. trade official told Reuters last month.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Foo Yun&nbsp;Chee in Brussels and Ron Popeski; Editing by Leslie Adler and Rosalba O'Brien)

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