Moscow says it is “ready to guarantee the safety of ships leaving Ukrainian ports”, but without announcing any concrete mechanism.
Moscow said to itselfreadyto secure Ukrainian grain exports on Wednesday in Ankara, without announcing any concrete mechanism to reassure kyiv, despite warnings from Mediterranean countries about the risk of deadly famine for “millionof people. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was received by his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu to discuss the establishment of secure corridors in the Black Sea, in order to facilitate trade in crops blocked in Ukrainian ports and by offshore mines.
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At the end of this meeting, Sergei Lavrov assured that Moscow is “ready to guarantee the safety of ships leaving Ukrainian ports», in cooperation with Ankara. “If, as our Turkish friends tell us, the Ukrainian side is ready to secure a passage between the mines, then this question can be solved“, he declared, assuring that Russia is ready for its part to “to guaranteethat it will not take advantage of the removal of the mines to attack Ukraine from the sea.
At the request of the United Nations, Turkey offered its help to escort these convoys, despite the presence of mines, some of which were detected near the Turkish coast, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For Mevlüt Cavusoglu, “the UN plan is reasonable and achievable. Ukraine and Russia should accept it“.
“Crucial weeks”
“We have prepared a plan for food corridors [sécurisés]. We submitted it to Russia but [Moscou] sends the ball back to Ukraine“, confided, on condition of anonymity, a Turkish diplomatic source at the end of the joint press conference of the Turkish and Russian ministers. Ukraine was not represented at this meeting.
As the world’s fourth largest corn exporter, Ukraine was on its way to becoming the world’s third largest wheat exporter before the war. The ongoing conflict since February 24 has caused prices to soar and pose a serious risk of famine in the countries that depend on them, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. Moscow and kyiv accuse each other of destroying grain stocks.
“The next few weeks will be crucial (…). We expect clear and concrete signals from Russia because blocking wheat exports means holding hostage and condemning to death millions of children, women and men“Warned Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday. The head of Italian diplomacy was speaking at the end of a ministerial conference on food security in the Mediterranean, with the participation of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Germany, President-in-Office of the G7.
“Remove Obstacles”
“Stakeholders (…) must be pressured to allow safe export of grain and other commodities without any delay“, pleaded the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib for whom”the world cannot continue to be at the mercy of military crises in Europe or other parts of the world“.
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In Ankara, the head of Turkish diplomacy also judged “legitto lift sanctions on Russian agricultural exports. Mevlüt Cavusoglu specifically mentioned the “grains and fertilizerswhich are not affected by Western sanctions against Moscow but whose exports are, in fact, prevented by the suspension of banking and financial exchanges.
Just before the war, kyiv exported 12% of the world’s wheat, 15% of corn and 50% of sunflower oil each month. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the amount of Ukrainian grain blocked due to the war. “At the moment we have 20 to 25 tons blocked. This autumn we could reach 70 to 75 million tonnes“, declared Volodymyr Zelensky, specifying that Ukraine is also discussing with Poland and the Baltic countries to export small quantities of cereals by railways.
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