UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was probably the most important thing he had done in his time at the helm of the international body.
“Today, there is a lighthouse in the Black Sea,” he told the audience gathered in Istanbul. “A beacon of hope… possibility… and relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”
However, there were still doubts on the part of Ukraine before the signing.
A parliamentarian from Odessa, the center of Russia’s grain blockade in Ukraine, said he still did not trust the Kremlin because of its past behavior.
According to the BBC, Oleksiy Goncharenko said that “we do not believe in the Russians”, adding that Russia would only sign an agreement if it felt there was no other option.
Russia has always denied blockading Ukraine’s ports, blaming Ukraine for planting mines in the sea and Western sanctions for curbing Russia’s exports.
In an article addressed to African newspapers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the West and Ukraine for “absolutely unfounded” accusations that Russia was exporting famine. He praised the “balanced position of Africans regarding what is happening in and around Ukraine.”
However, Ukraine says the Russian navy prevents it from shipping grain and other exports and accuses Russian occupation forces of stealing grain from Ukrainian farms.
But amid the uncertainty, there are positive signs: the prospect of the unlocking of more than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain alone caused a 2% drop in wheat prices this Friday.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has played a crucial role in the negotiations, said he hoped the deal could be the first step in ending the war.
“It is to be hoped that this joint step that we are taking with Ukraine and Russia will revive the path to peace,” he said on Friday.