In the fourth consecutive day of Russian attacks on the agricultural and grain export infrastructure in Odessa, Ukraine has decided to raise the pulse by implicating its army in the plan to try to keep grain ships from leaving its Black Sea ports. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, held a meeting at the highest level this Friday with the heads of the Army and the Navy, as well as with the Minister of Infrastructure. The objective was to coordinate initiatives to keep the initiative alive despite the threats launched from Russia, which not only closed the door on Monday to extending the agreement that guaranteed a safe exit corridor for grain, but has also threatened any ship that approaches Ukrainian ports. The result is a rise in prices in the international market, as already occurred in the first months of the invasion that began in February of last year.
Several missiles were launched at dawn on Odesa, one of them, even when the emergency services were already in place, denounced a military spokesman. “Unfortunately, the grain terminals of an agricultural company in the Odessa region were hit. The enemy destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley,” the regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said in the morning through the Telegram social network.
Meanwhile, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tries, as he has done throughout the war, to steer between two waters. On this occasion, he has asked that the conditions demanded by Moscow to return to the grain agreement be heard and taken into account, which are none other than lifting sanctions on the international trade of its products as punishment for having invaded Ukraine. “Russia also has some expectations. If they are resolved, Russia is in favor of the operation of the grain corridor,” Erdogan told journalists on Friday who were accompanying him on his return from a visit to the Persian Gulf countries, the Efe agency reported.
The goal of Ukraine is that General Valeri Zaluzhni, head of the army; Rear Admiral Oleksi Neizhpapa and Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov develop a “set of actions” to keep the Black Sea corridor open, the president said through his Telegram social network channel. At the same time, he called on the Foreign Ministry to undertake “similar diplomatic measures.”
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The United Nations once again accused Russia of putting the food security of countries with fewer resources at risk. “The events of the past week are just the latest developments in the Russian Federation’s senseless war against its neighbor, a war whose consequences are being felt around the world,” said United Nations Chief of Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo.
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Vershinin, said that a new grain agreement is possible between Russia and Turkey – the pact was signed by Kiev and Moscow separately with Erdogan and the UN, mediating parties – if the Kremlin’s conditions are accepted, which include easing sanctions on their materials and products. Moscow considers its bombardments on Odesa as a retaliation for the attacks that kyiv has carried out in recent days on Russian positions in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014.
After confirming Moscow’s refusal on July 17, kyiv was determined to find a way to maintain international trade in its grains. Ukraine, Zelensky said, is aware of “the risks and threats” that this entails. Russia has not only bombarded Odesa these days, but also opened the door to considering any ship that sails through the area a military objective. In a parallel move, Kiev announced on Thursday that, from now on, all ships heading to Russian or Ukrainian ports in Black Sea waters located in areas occupied by the invader “may be considered by Ukraine as carriers of military goods, with all associated risks,” according to a Defense Ministry statement. The text also alludes to the fact that navigation in the northeast of the Black Sea and in the Kerch Strait, between Crimea and Russia, “is prohibited because it is dangerous.”
Odesa, the main Ukrainian city on the shores of the Black Sea, was attacked again at dawn this Friday by Russia and for the fourth consecutive day. The objective reached this time was an agricultural exploitation. The launch of Kalibr-type missiles did not stop even when the emergency services were already working in the place, according to the spokeswoman for the southern command of the Armed Forces, Natalia Gumeniuk, denounced on Telegram.
“Ukrainian farmers, as we can imagine, view this nighttime attack with great anxiety as they harvest their crops, grown in the shadow of war” amid “the risks of landmines” and “unexploded ordnance,” Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Security Council meeting on Friday. “The food that you are now harvesting that may no longer be able to reach the global markets that so desperately need it,” he added.
There were no fatalities, although two people were injured and damage to a grain store and a building where the machinery was located. The authorities did not give details about which company was attacked and the exact place in the region in which it is located. He did post some images showing the damage, including one of the emergency services trucks.
“The enemy continues to terrorize and is undoubtedly connected to the grain initiative. Last night, the enemy attacked an agricultural enterprise in the Odessa region, where they tried to destroy the grain reserves. Directly [golpearon] the sheds where it is stored and a building where agricultural machinery was stored,” said Gumeniuk. The military spokeswoman added that the Russians launched the Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea. They did so, she explained, at a very low altitude to prevent the Ukrainian army’s anti-aircraft systems from detecting them.
Meanwhile, the EU on Thursday accused Russian leader Vladimir Putin of using starvation as a weapon in the conflict. The high representative for Foreign Policy and Defense, Josep Borrell, warned that his withdrawal from the agreement to remove the Ukrainian grain will bring serious consequences that will also worsen with the “barbaric attitude” that the constant attacks in Odesa entail. “This is going to create a huge food crisis in the world,” Borrell said.
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