STORY: Zelenskiy said after talks with Guterres in Kyiv that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was necessary for the world, and the U.N. chief underlined the importance of the deal to global food security and food prices.

The 120-day deal, initially brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July and extended in November, will be renewed on March 18 if no party objects.

Zelenskiy said he and Guterres had agreed that rolling over the deal on March 18 was "critically necessary for the world."

Russia, which lifted a blockade of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports under the deal, has signalled that obstacles to its own agricultural exports need to be removed before it lets the deal continue.