DThe battle over grain exports from Ukraine continues. Political and military: The Russian army has once again attacked agricultural targets in the Odessa region on the Black Sea. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, a total of 16 cruise missiles and drones entered the airspace on Sunday night.
The Ukrainians were able to shoot down more than half of them, the rest achieved their targets. Odessa Governor Oleh Kiper said a grain silo and fields in the region had been hit. Russia intensified the shelling of Ukraine’s remaining port facilities after the Russian side withdrew from the grain agreement in July.
Despite the dangerous situation, two cargo ships have now arrived in Ukraine for the first time, in the city of Chernomorsk near Odessa. According to Kiev, the ships will load 20,000 tons of wheat for Egypt and Israel. Infrastructure Minister Olexandr Kubrakow wrote on Facebook that the ships Aroyat and Resilient Africa were flying the Palau flag and that the personnel consisted of Ukrainians, Turks, Azerbaijanis and Egyptians.
Despite Russian threats in the summer to view cargo ships as military targets in the future, Ukraine has unilaterally announced the creation of a shipping corridor. So far, five ships have used the corridor towards the Bosphorus, according to Kubrakow, with the purpose of getting to safety after their extended stay in Ukraine due to the war.
Eastern European EU states want to protect their own markets
The political debate about grain exports is also entering a new round. The transfer of millions of tons of agricultural exports overland since the start of the war had plunged the markets of the eastern EU countries into turbulence, sparked farmers’ protests and prompted Brussels in May to impose an import ban on Ukrainian wheat, corn and oilseeds for these markets. This expired on Saturday night; the vast majority of EU countries were against extending it.
The EU Commission announced that the import ban no longer applies because “market distortions have disappeared” in the countries bordering Ukraine. In return, Ukraine agreed to “introduce legal measures within 30 days to avoid a flood of grain, for example a system for export licenses” and to present an “action plan” this Monday. “The Commission will not impose any restrictions as long as effective Ukrainian measures are in place and fully effective.”
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia reacted sharply to Brussels’ approval of trade. All three countries announced their own import restrictions on Ukrainian grain. However, transit to third countries is still permitted. Bulgaria, on the other hand, has left the anti-import front this time, unlike in the spring.
Romania, which, along with the Poles, has to deal with the majority of grain transit, also appeared to be more flexible: although it regretted that “no European solution was found to extend the import ban”, it wanted to wait for Ukraine’s new steps first, said the Romanian government the government with. The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Schmyhal, has since thanked the EU Commission. Lifting the import ban is “a fair decision that contributes to global security of supply.”
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