Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian bombing of southern Ukraine’s grain-exporting ports was an attack on world food security and that no terrorist “except Russia” had threatened so many nations at the same time.
“Any Russian attack on these ports is a blow to world food prices, social and political stability in Africa and Asia.” Zelensky said in his daily post, broadcast on social media, after another night of bombing.
After several attacks since the beginning of August, the Russian army returned last night to attack port infrastructures on the Danube with ‘drones’.
“As a result of enemy attacks on one of the ports on the Danube, grain stores have been damaged,” Odessa region governor Oleg Kiper said on social media.
In his message, Zelensky enumerated the Russian attacks on the ports of Reni, Izmail, Pivdennyi, Odessa and Chornomorsk, noting that “the basic things that give normal life to any society are food on the family table” and that “no terrorist in the world, except Russia, has never so blatantly and deliberately attacked the security of so many nations at once.”
“We have to respond to this. All of us! We have to neutralize this – actively, with joint efforts,” declared the Ukrainian president, reiterating his thanks and request for international help through air defense systems, weapons, sanctions, financial pressure and policies on Russia , as “the main things that now guarantee security and the return of peace, not only in one country, but in the whole world”.
US diplomacy also responded to the recent Russian attacks in similar terms, claiming that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin “couldn’t care less” about providing essential food to developing countries.
“This is unacceptable. Putin doesn’t care about global food security,” US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington.
Ukraine also announced today the departure of the first commercial cargo ship from the port of Odessa on the new route on the Black Sea, defying Russia, which has threatened to attack these ships since it canceled Ukraine’s grain export deal a month ago .
“Ukraine has just taken an important step towards restoring freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. The first civilian ship has passed through the new Ukrainian humanitarian corridor, departing from the port of Odessa,” he said in X ( former Twitter).
Washington today asked Moscow to “immediately” return to the Black Sea Grains Initiative, which linked Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, for global food security and price stabilization, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, started the Russian invasion on February 24 last year.
“The contrast is very clear. Our Ukrainian partners are inspiring the world as Russia starves the world by turning food into weaponssaid Vedant Patel.
Source: DN
