TOP HEADLINES

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of "perverting" the Black Sea grain deal, but says an agreement could still be reached if all of his country's five key demands are met. READ MORE BELOW

• Russia struck residential buildings on Thursday in a third straight night of bombardments of Ukrainian ports and issued a new threat against Ukraine-bound vessels that the United States said meant Moscow might attack ships on the high seas.

• Poland's defense ministry is monitoring the situation on the border with Belarus and is prepared for various scenarios, it said on Thursday, after Belarus said mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group would take part in military exercises near the border.

• Germany is working with allies to ensure that Ukrainian grain is not left to rot in silos after Russia pulled out of an export deal, and will intensify work on getting the grain out by rail, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.

• The White House warned on Wednesday that Russia may expand its targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping in the Black Sea.

• European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to 20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years.

IN DEPTH

Putin says Western countries at fault for Black Sea grain deal collapse

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Western countries of perverting the expired Black Sea grain deal for their own ends, but said Russia would immediately return to the agreement if all its conditions were met.

On Monday, Moscow had quit the deal, under which it had allowed Ukraine a year ago to export grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war to alleviate a global food crisis.

It said a parallel memorandum signed at the same time, intended to facilitate its own grain and fertilizer exports in the face of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its attack on Ukraine, had been ignored.

"Initially, the essence, the meaning of the grain deal has a colossal humanitarian significance," Putin said.

"The West has completely emasculated and perverted this essence, and instead of helping countries in real need, the West used the grain deal for political blackmail, and in addition... made it a tool for enriching transnational corporations, speculators in the global grain market."

He restated Moscow's position that it would return to the deal as soon as the West met its five key demands, which Putin enumerated:

- readmission of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the SWIFT payment system;

- resumption of exports of agricultural machinery and spare parts to Russia;

- removal of restrictions on insurance and access to ports for Russian ships and cargo;

- reinstatement of a now-damaged ammonia export pipeline from Russia's Togliatti to Odesa in Ukraine;

- the unblocking of accounts and financial activities of Russian fertilizer companies.

"If all these conditions are fulfilled, which we previously agreed on - they are not something I have invented now – but as soon as they are fulfilled, we will immediately return to the deal," Putin said.

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