Turnaround in Russia – Ukraine can continue to export grain Alleged Pelosi attacker pleads innocent

Surprisingly, Russia on Saturday suspended a grain export agreement with Ukraine. On Wednesday, however, the government withdrew: now the ships carrying wheat, maize and other food must be able to continue sailing through a safe corridor in the Black Sea. This was announced by the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow. Putin does not rule out a new exit, however.

The agreement

Russia and Ukraine are both major grain exporters, earning billions from exports of grain produced.

The deal, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July, ended the months-long blockade of Ukrainian grain exports over the Russian war of aggression. The agreement between Russia and Ukraine is intended to allow Ukrainian cargo ships to safely transport grain through the Black Sea on certain routes. It was considered an important contribution to defusing the global food crisis caused by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

While the war continues to hamper exports, Ukraine has exported millions of tons of food by sea since the Grains Agreement came into effect, Zelenskyy said recently. 60 percent of the amount went to Africa and Asia. According to the UN, a total of nearly 10 million tons of goods were transported under the agreement.

However, Russia has always threatened to cancel the four-month agreement. In the agreement, Russia agreed to end the blockade of Ukrainian seaports for grain exports, but in return demanded relief for its own fertilizer and food exports.

The crossman of Russia

On Saturday, Russia finally suspended the agreement. The charge: Ukraine is using the Black Sea for attacks on Russia. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, this meant the “terrorist attacks” on the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol. The ministry accused the British navy of having given instructions to bombard the peninsula with drones. According to Russian information, a minesweeper was also damaged. Britain rejected the charges.

Kiev then accused Moscow of a new grain blockade as it did at the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

For weeks, Russia threatened a possible halt to the grain deal, which has brought Ukrainian food back onto the world market since the summer. Moscow remains particularly concerned that it will not be able to export grain and manure on the scale it wants even in the wake of Western sanctions.

Back down

On Wednesday it was announced that Russia wants to continue the agreement. Thanks to mediation – and pressure – from Turkey and the United Nations, Ukraine has now pledged not to use the maritime corridor and ports for hostilities against Russia. Appropriate written security guarantees have been received from Kiev.

That is sufficient for the time being to honor the agreement, it said in Moscow. The prominent Russian foreign politician and member of the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, justified Moscow’s concession by not allowing a food crisis and hunger in the developing world. The grain deal is important in the fight against hunger in the world.

The shipments were due to continue on Wednesday, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin about the agreement the day before and likely convinced him of the turnaround. Deliveries should mainly be aimed at poorer countries. On the other hand, a UN spokeswoman for the coordination center in Istanbul told the German news agency that there would be no ships in the corridor on Wednesday.

The reactions

Ukraine

For Ukraine, the Russian return is a partial success in the war that has been going on for more than eight months. In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has complained that Russia is blocking the passage of ships laden with grain. He emphasized the importance of these shipments in the fight against hunger in the world.

In Ukraine’s presidential office, Russia’s return to the grain deal is seen by Moscow as “the end of blackmail”. “From a geopolitical point of view, what happened that day puts an end to the years of blackmail diplomacy that Russia has engaged in,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram. “They know no other diplomacy there, that’s why they lose in the modern world,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Yermak did not comment on Ukrainian pledges Moscow says it has received. According to Russian sources, Ukraine has made written commitments that it will not use the ports and the maritime corridor for military purposes for grain exports across the Black Sea.

In any case, Moscow’s turnaround shows that Putin remains to some extent a rational politician and can admit it, according to Russian analyst Tatyana Stanovaya. “The Kremlin itself has fallen into a trap and didn’t know how to get out. They suspended the deal, but in the end did not know how to stop grain exports,” says the expert. Russia did not want to shoot at the grain ships.

World Food Program

After Russia’s concession, the World Food Program (WFP) spoke of good news for the world’s hungry. “For millions of people in need around the world, these ships are beacons of hope that can save lives,” Martin Frick, head of the Berlin office of the UN agency, told the German news agency. Since the agreement was signed last summer, WFP has shipped more than 220,000 tons of wheat from Ukrainian ports to hungry people in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Yemen. Another 160,000 tons would soon follow.

New exit not excluded

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has not ruled out another exit from the grain deal with Ukraine, should there be violations from a Russian point of view. “Russia reserves the right to withdraw from these agreements in the event that the guarantees are breached by Ukraine,” Putin said during a video conference with the National Security Council on Wednesday. Even if the agreement is revoked, Russia is willing to allow grain deliveries destined for poorer countries to pass through the agreed corridor.

(lacquer/sda/dpa)