Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to resume the export of Russian ammonia through Ukraine if Russia returns Ukrainian prisoners of war. He stated this in an interview with Reuters in response to a UN request to resume supplies of Russian ammonia to Ukraine in order to reduce the global shortage of fertilizers in the world market.
“I am against the supply of ammonia from the Russian Federation through our territory. I would only do this in exchange for our prisoners. That is what I proposed to the UN,” Zelensky said.
The Kremlin reacted negatively to the proposal. “Is people and ammonia the same thing?” Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president, said in an interview with TASS.
The UN had earlier proposed resuming the transit of ammonia, produced by the Russian fertilizer plant Uralchem, through a pipeline to Odessa, where it would be bought by the American commodity trader Trammo.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed that the UN had indeed begun negotiations to resume ammonia exports through Ukraine. He stated that Kyiv will not agree to any agreement that is contrary to security interests.
Ammonia is the main component in the production of nitrate fertilizers, and an increase in its supply to the world market can reduce its prices and mitigate the risks of a food crisis in a number of countries.
In Ukraine, there is the only ammonia pipeline "Togliatti-Odessa", the end point of which is the Odessa Port Plant. Before the start of the war on February 24, this pipeline exported ammonia produced by Russian PJSC Togliattiazot (owned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin) and JSC Minudobreniya (owned by Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg).
On February 24, the supply of ammonia through the pipeline ceased. Now, against the backdrop of recent threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the "grain agreement" that unlocked the export of Ukrainian grain, the UN wants to resume the supply of Russian ammonia for export.