File photo dated August 14, 2022 shows the MV Brave Commander, the first UN chartered ship, loading more than 23,000 tons of grain into the Black Sea at the port of Yuzhne, east of Odessa. (AFP / OLEKSANDR GIMANOV)
Russia on Saturday suspended the deal on grain exports from Ukrainian ports, which are vital to feeding the world and which Ukraine and the United States have accused of being held hostage.
Moscow assures that this decision was made after a drone attack on these ships.
Ukraine denounced “a false pretense” and called for pressure to be put on Russia “again to commit to honoring its commitments” to this deal signed in July under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, the only one between Moscow and Kyiv since Beginning of the year The conflict.
In his video published daily on the Internet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “that this decision actually does not date from today”.
“Russia began exacerbating global food shortages in September when it began blocking the movements of ships transporting our agricultural products,” he said.
“This is a transparent Russian intention to rekindle the specter of a major famine in Africa and Asia,” he added. According to him, at least 176 ships with more than two million tons of grain have already been blocked by Moscow.
“A vigorous international response is required. At the UN level and especially at the G20 level,” to which Russia should no longer be admitted, he added.
However, a Turkish security source told AFP on Saturday night that “Turkey has not been officially notified by Moscow of its withdrawal from the deal.”
US President Joe Biden called Russia’s decision “scandalous”.
“It’s just outrageous. There was no reason for them to do this,” he told reporters after voting early in the midterm elections in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said: “By suspending this deal, Russia is once again using food as a weapon in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and already exacerbating serious humanitarian needs Crises and food insecurity,” said Blinken.
The grain deal has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain that has been stuck in Ukrainian ports since the conflict began in February. This blockade had caused food prices to skyrocket and fueled fears of famine.
The UN, guarantor of the agreement, called for its preservation, stressing that it has “positive impacts” on access to food for millions of people around the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up criticism of the deal in recent weeks, noting that exports from Russia, another major grain producer, have suffered under the sanctions.
Moscow justified this suspension with a drone strike that targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in Sevastopol Bay in annexed Crimea on Saturday morning.
Map of the situation in Ukraine as of October 28 at 8:00 GMT (AFP/)
“In view of the terrorist attack by the Kiev regime with the participation of British experts against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in securing grain corridors, Russia is continuing its participation in the implementation of the agreement to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” the Russian Defense Ministry said per Telegram with.
In the face of these allegations, the British defense responded by denouncing “false information” designed to “divert attention”.
– “Invented story” –
Russian authorities say the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday with “nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous sea drones” causing “minor damage” to a minesweeper and the Sevastopol Bay containment boom.
“Preparation for this act of terrorism and training of military personnel of the 73rd Ukrainian Maritime Special Operations Center was carried out by British specialists based in Ochakov in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
The Star Helena, flying the flag of the Marshall Islands and loaded with around 45,000 tons of sunflowers, leaves the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on the Black Sea on August 7, 2022 (AFP / Oleksandr GIMANOV)
Moscow has also accused London of being involved in the blasts that damaged Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September and promised to take the issue to the UN Security Council.
“Russia has repeatedly asked for a joint investigation into the attacks (…). The fact that Western countries have rejected this proposal confirms it: they have something to hide,” Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in one Explanation.
The British Ministry of Defense has denounced a “fabricated history” by Russia to “deflect attention from its disastrous management of the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
– “The problems worsened” –
Shortly before the suspension of the grain agreement was announced, the Russian agriculture minister again criticized the text and accused the EU states of monopolizing Ukrainian exports that should go to poor countries. These allegations had previously been denied by the Turkey-based coordination office.
A man carries bread in the village of Drobysheve in eastern Ukraine after the area was retaken from the Russians on October 28, 2022 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
“Unfortunately, the grain agreement not only did not solve the problems of the suffering countries, but in a certain sense even aggravated them,” said Dmitry Patrushev.
In Ukraine, on the southern front, AFP journalists witnessed artillery fire in the village of Kobzartsi, the last place on the Ukrainian side before the line of contact with the Russians.
Ukrainian soldiers prepare a shot at Kherson, October 28, 2022 (AFP / BULENT KILIC)
“Things can go wrong there. But we know that they suffer a lot more on their side than on ours,” assured a Ukrainian soldier, Oleksiï, in his mid-20s.
Both sides are preparing to fight in the area over the city of Kherson, the capital of the region from which occupation authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians in what Ukraine calls “deportations.”