The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, asked the UN and Turkey on Monday to expand, without the participation of Russia, the initiative that allows the export of Ukrainian cereals through the Black Sea, after leaving Moscow.
“I have sent official letters to the president of Türkiye [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and the UN Secretary General, [António] Guterres, with the proposal to continue the Black Sea Grains Initiative or its equivalent in a trilateral format,” Zelensky emphasized, in his usual nightly address to the nation.
The Kiev authorities want the international community to guarantee, even without Moscow’s agreement, the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, violated by the Russian military since it launched the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
“Ukraine, the UN and Turkey (…) can jointly guarantee the functionality of the food corridor and the supervision of the ships” which until now allowed, despite the limitations imposed by the Russian side, the maritime exit of Ukrainian grains, despite the limitations imposed by the Russian invasion, he added.
The Ukrainian head of state recalled that the agreement has Turkey and the UN as signatories and “remains in force” despite Russia’s refusal to extend it.
“The only thing that is needed is its careful implementation and decisive pressure from the world on the terrorist state,” Zelensky said, referring to Russia.
The Ukrainian president recalled that the cereal agreement, through which Russia promised in July 2023, before the UN and Turkey, to allow the export of cereals through three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, allowed 33 million tons of agricultural products will reach 45 countries.
Earlier this month, Russia declared that Moscow saw no reason to extend the agreement and decided to suspend it, arguing that the sanctions it suffers for the aggression against Ukraine prevent the fulfillment of the part of the pact that should also guarantee Russian food and food exports. . fertilizer.
The agreement expired at 12:00 a.m. this Monday (10:00 p.m. in Lisbon), after the end of the term established during its last renewal for two months in May.
Moscow’s suspension of the deal prompted comments from UN Secretary General António Guterres warning that hundreds of millions of people will pay for Russia’s decision to break the deal.
Turkey’s president said, in turn, that he believed that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “wants to keep” the agreement.
Britain, France and Germany, among other European allies, also condemned Russia’s suspension of the Black Sea agreements, as did Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, who warned that Russia’s suspension of the cereals agreement is “very bad news”. which could lead to a “global food crisis”.
Source: TSF
