(NDAgConnection.com) – Russia agreed to resume a deal allowing safe passage of Ukrainian crop exports, abruptly reversing course after Turkey and the United Nations pushed ahead with the shipments over Moscow’s objections. Wheat prices dropped on the news.

According to Bloomberg News, the Kremlin’s pullout from the agreement on Saturday and Russian warnings over the safety of ships in the Black Sea corridor had sowed chaos through agricultural markets and sent prices soaring. But as the shipments continued this week – with a one-day interruption Wednesday – despite Russian warnings they could be in danger, Moscow’s leverage appeared limited.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia was resuming participation in the deal because it had received “written guarantees” from Ukraine that the safe-passage corridor wouldn’t be used for military purposes. Ukraine has long said it wouldn’t use it for such operations.

Chicago wheat futures were down 6.7% as of 2:10 p.m. London time, the most since March, after surging in the first two days of the week. Grain prices have been volatile over the past few months amid speculation over the fate of the deal which is set to expire Nov. 19.

In televised comments, Putin warned that Russia reserved the right to pull out of the agreement again if Ukraine violates it. The Foreign Ministry said that the issue of the extension of the pact would be discussed separately and it would decide by the deadline, according to Tass.

The UN welcomed Russia’s move. The sudden return to the deal came after days of intense diplomacy by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke by phone with Putin earlier in the week.