After five months of bloody fighting between Ukraine and Russia, on July 22nd the countries’ envoys shook hands stiffly in Istanbul to seal a deal intended to reopen Ukrainian ports for the export of grain to a hungry world. As world wheat prices fell by more than 6%, reverting to pre-war levels, António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, hailed the accord as “a beacon on the Black Sea”. The deal did not favour one side or the other, he insisted, but the whole world.
