The agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals, crucial for world food, expired on Monday night, a few hours after an attack that partially destroyed for the second time the strategic bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that it annexed in 2014.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, reacted to the Russian decision, stressing that “hundreds of millions of people face hunger” and that they “will pay the price”.
“Use food as a weapon”
Moscow’s choice to use “food as a weapon … will make it more difficult to get food to places that desperately need it and will lead to higher prices,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
For its part, Ukraine has shown its willingness to continue exporting its grain through the Black Sea, with or without Moscow’s agreement on ship safety. Its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said kyiv is ready to continue its grain exports across the Black Sea.
But, for the moment, Russia has declared the end of the inadmissibility of the calls that had multiplied in recent days for the renewal of the agreement, demanding that its demands on its own exports of cereals and fertilizers be met.
The deal “de facto ended today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “as soon as the part concerning Russia is fulfilled, Russia will immediately return to the grain deal.”
“If Western capitals truly appreciate the Black Sea Initiative, then they will seriously consider meeting their obligations and effectively withdraw Russian fertilizer and food from sanctions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry explained.
Source: BFM TV
