During talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed for a return to the Black Sea grain export deal. “The opening of the grain corridor is an absolute priority,” Zelenskyj said Friday evening after a phone call with Erdogan in Kiev. “Together we must prevent a global food crisis.”
After the termination of the agreement by Russia on Monday, there is a new naval blockade. Moscow has withdrawn security guarantees from grain carriers in Black Sea regions under its control.
“Russia’s actions have once again brought the world to the brink of a food crisis. In many countries in Africa and Asia, a total of 400 million people are at risk of starvation,” Zelenskyy said. Thanks to the agreement signed a year ago with warring factions Russia and Ukraine, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, Kiev could continue to transport its grain across the Black Sea. The sale brought significant revenue to Ukraine for its budget.
Terror against the people of Odessa
Russia has been bombing the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea for days and destroying grain warehouses there, under the pretext that there are military targets there. In his video message distributed in the evening, Selenskyj accused Russia of terrorizing the people of Odessa. He announced that he would punish Russia for this.
“Moreover, there will be even more consolidation of the world for defense and for common action, even more energy for victory, even more desire for justice, just punishment of Russia for all war crimes,” he said. Ukraine knows how to defend itself and, in addition to the weapons supplied by the West, is increasingly producing its own drones and ammunition.
Zelenskyi also said in the video that two children were killed in Russian artillery shelling in the village of Druzhba in the eastern Donetsk region. According to the media, they were siblings. According to Zelenskyy, two women were also killed as a result of rocket fire in Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region. A cultural center, a school and houses were damaged. Zelenskyy sent his condolences to the families of the victims.
Russia sees UN grain deal reversed
Regarding the grain deal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Wershinin made it clear that Moscow sees the UN as having a role in the dispute over a possible resumption. “The ball is – as is sometimes said – in the court of our partners with whom we worked,” Vershinin said in Moscow on Friday.
The deputy minister emphasized that in the course of the grain agreement a memorandum with a three-year validity was signed a year ago with the United Nations, containing Russia’s terms of the deal. Russia is asking the West to ease sanctions so it can more easily sell its own grain and fertilizer on the world market. Moscow complains that during the EU sanctions, for example, the exclusion of Russian banks from the Swift financial transaction system hinders transactions. No insurance could be taken out for the freighters either.
The EU emphasizes that Russian grain and fertilizer are exempt from the sanctions and that many banks are still affiliated with Swift. However, Vershinin replied that the “spirit of sanctions” radiated and that many partners also shy away from doing legal business with Russia. That is why Russia in principle wants to realize relaxations. At the same time, he made it clear that Russia would find ways to bring its grain and fertilizers, which are in high demand in developing countries, to the world market.
The agreement to ship grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports was signed a year ago on July 22, brokered by the UN and Turkey. Vershinin said Russia remains ready to negotiate a new deal with Turkey. You have “a very close cooperation”. President Erdogan mediated between the warring factions a year ago.
In addition to connecting its banks to Swift, Russia is also demanding a resumption of parts deliveries for its agricultural machinery and fertilizer production equipment. In addition, the blockade of Russian assets abroad related to agriculture should be lifted, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said. Russia is ready to return to the agreement if all conditions are met.
Zelenskyy: Crimean bridge is “enemy facility”
Ukraine’s president, meanwhile, described the Crimean bridge, which was damaged on Monday, as a “hostile facility” that must be destroyed. The bridge, which connects mainland Russia to the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, is “not just a logistical route,” Zelenskyy said via video link at a security conference in Aspen, Colorado, on Friday. Rather, it is the road used daily to supply ammunition to the Russian offensive war. This leads to a militarization of Crimea.
Russia, which has been waging an offensive war against Ukraine for about 17 months, had already annexed Crimea in violation of international law in 2014 and later connected it to its own mainland via the bridge. According to Moscow, the 19-kilometer-long structure was attacked by Ukrainian drones early Monday morning, causing part of the roadway to subside. Kiev, which wants to liberate all occupied territories, has so far not confirmed involvement in the attack. After the attack on the strategically important bridge, Moscow canceled the international agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine.
Strack-Zimmermann wants the ICRC to be more involved in the war in Ukraine
In addition to resuming grain supplies, Ukraine is also demanding that Russia extradite children suspected of kidnapping in the offensive war that has been going on for nearly 17 months. The chairman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to do much more to clarify the fate of 20,000 missing people from Ukraine. At the same time, she strongly condemned the fact that the Belarusian Red Cross brought children from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine to Belarus, as the head of the organization Dmitry Shevtsov had admitted.
“The terrible reports of the despicable abduction of children by the Red Cross in Belarus raise the question of how independently the Red Cross fulfills its task in the current conflict,” the FDP politician told the German news agency in Berlin. The umbrella organization of the Red Cross Societies distanced itself from the Red Cross of authoritarian Belarus on Wednesday. Shevtsov recently visited a Russian-occupied region in eastern Ukraine. The ex-Soviet Republic of Belarus is a close ally of Russia in the war of aggression against Ukraine.
What will be important on Saturday
In Ukraine, the counter-offensive to liberate the Russian-occupied areas in the east and south of the country continues. Kiev has not yet succeeded in breaking through, mainly due to the reclamation of the areas and the anti-tank barriers on the Russian defense lines. (cst/sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
