International legal aspects of the Black Sea Grain Initiative

The subject of the study is the international agreements concluded within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as one of the humanitarian vectors of cooperation between states in the field of agriculture and food security under restrictive measures, as well as other international legal and non-legal acts. The object of the study is international interstate relations developing in the process of cooperation in the field of agriculture, food security, humanitarian cooperation, as well as interstate cooperation in the field of the use of the high seas and territorial waters. The purpose of the study was to analyze the international legal characteristics of the agreements concluded within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), including determining the main prerequisites for their conclusion and identifying their significance for international law. In the course of the research, such methods of scientific cognition were used as: dialectical, method of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, statistical, system-structural, historical, formal legal, comparative legal, method of legal linguistics. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that there is no research in the domestic doctrine devoted to the international legal characteristics of BSGI. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the main factors contributing to the BSGI were the negative impact of unilateral restrictive measures against the Russian Federation on the one hand and the armed conflict in Ukraine on the other hand. At the same time, unilateral restrictive measures against the Russian Federation affecting the domestic agricultural sector, by their legal nature, contradict the basic principles of international law. The international agreements within the framework of the BSGI had a humanitarian purpose and were mainly aimed at stabilizing global food security. The Memorandum and the Initiative concluded within the framework of the BSGI have different legal status and are not formally interrelated: The Initiative concluded by the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine is an international treaty, whereas the Memorandum between the UN Secretariat and the Russian Federation is a non-legal agreement. The main importance of the BSGI for international law is as follows: states are able to cooperate with each other in order to ensure food security even in conditions of geopolitical tension; Russia is ready to faithfully fulfill its international legal obligations; it is necessary to further develop the UN mediation function in resolving issues related to ensuring global food security.