UN chief says Russian food and fertiliser must get to market

ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that governments and the private sector should cooperate to bring Russian food and fertilizers as well as Ukrainian grain to world markets under a deal agreed last month.

"The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertilizer, which are not subject to sanctions," Guterres told a news conference in Istanbul. "It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market.

"Getting more food and fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers."

An Al Jazeera report adds: Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed that a team of independent inspectors can travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant via Ukraine.

According to French President Emmanuel Macron's office on Friday, Putin "reconsidered the demand" that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) travel through Russia to the site, after the Russian leader himself warned fighting there could bring about a "catastrophe".

It specified Putin dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.

Meanwhile, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged Moscow's forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant in south Ukraine not to disconnect the facility from the grid and potentially cut supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

A flare-up in fighting around the Zaporizhzhia plant - with both sides blaming each other for attacks - has raised the spectre of a disaster worse than in Chernobyl.