After the Ukraine-Russia meeting, the UN sees a “glimmer of hope” for the release of grain

BRUSSELS (AP) – Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met on Wednesday in an increasingly desperate effort for liberation huge reserves of corn locked up from Russian warships, producing what the UN Secretary-General called “a ray of hopeBut not a formal agreement that could alleviate rising hunger in the world.

The meeting on Wednesday, held in Istanbul with the UN. Military representatives and officers from Russia, Ukraine and Turkey had raised hopes for a breakthrough.

It ended with progress, the UN official said, but there is no global agreement.

“This was a first meeting, progress has been extremely encouraging. We hope that the next steps will allow us to reach a formal agreement, “she said. Antonio Guterresthe secretary general, speaking to reporters in New York at the end of the 90-minute meeting.

“We still need a lot of goodwill on all sides,” he said, adding:

“Now it will take longer technical work to achieve today’s progress, but the momentum is clear.

Hulusi Akar, the Turkish defense minister who organized the talks, said Ukrainian and Russian negotiators will meet again in Istanbul next week and a coordination center with representatives from both sides will be established there.

Officials have been trying for months break the deadlock on Ukrainian wheat without triggering an escalation of the war or a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

In interviews, more than half a dozen officials directly involved or informed about the plans cited obstacles to a deal that ranged from trivial to blunt. “Mission Impossible”.

Proposed alternatives, such as moving grain on land or across the Danube riverhave been considered too slow, cumbersome and small-scale, for more than 22 million tons of grain are trapped in Odessa and other Black Sea ports blocked by Russian warships.

Failure to move grain from ports and silos could start hindering the summer harvest, leaving farmers behind nowhere to store fresh crops.

The war in Ukraine is already adding to a global food crisis that has pushed the prices of basic necessities like wheat and barley to record highs.

The most immediate and consequential consequence is the looming famine in the Horn of Africa, where years of drought have devastated communities in Somalia and parts of neighboring countries.

Ukrainethe world’s fourth largest exporter of wheat, it is a key source for that region.

Efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement have been hampered by problems, including mines in the Black Sea, organizing sea freight inspections and the Kremlin’s belief that it has an interest in solving the blockade.

As officials debated the grain crisis in Istanbul, the Ukrainian military began responding on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, attacking bases and ammunition depots deep in Russian-occupied territory with the help of new weapons and weapons. more powerful provided by the West.

Early Wednesday morning, a fireball lit the sky over Luhansk, the capital of a Russian-controlled province in eastern Ukraine.

Russian media reported that the Ukrainian army had hit an anti-aircraft battery.

This followed the destruction of six ammunition depots on Tuesday in Russian-controlled territories in southern and eastern Ukraine, according to Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa military administration.

The strategy of the Ukrainian forces was still in its infancy and it was not yet clear whether it would allow them to stop Russian artillery attacks and offensive operations.

Some Ukrainian officials have said that the Russians have been forced to move supply centers further away from the front, a claim that cannot be verified.

“The Russian army hasn’t stopped bombing, but it likely is store your existing ammo supplies because these supplies have been interrupted by the work of our new long-range weapons, “said Serhiy Haidai, head of the military administration of the Lugansk region.

Crucial to this effort, Ukrainian officials say, was the arrival of new long-range weapon systems and artillery units, most notably the U.S. truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers known as High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems or HIMARS, and similar systems. from other NATO countries.

Those rocket launchers, which started arriving in Ukraine in June, are proving theirs effectiveness to attack Russian military bases and ammunition supply depots deep behind enemy lines.

The systems fire satellite-guided rockets, whose range of over 40 miles is greater than anything Ukrainian troops have in their arsenal.

Ukrainian officials said a similar missile strike last week against a Russian military base and ammunition depot in the Kherson region was killed. 100 Russian military and destroyed an anti-aircraft installation.

Ukraine’s claims could not be independently confirmed, and Russian-settled local government officials disputed the report.

They said the attack had effectively destroyed homes and businesses, killing several civilians.

Images of the area taken by local residents, as well as from Russian television, showed a wasteland of twisted metal and buildings reduced to rubble.

The growing destruction has intensified efforts to help Ukraine, once known as the granary of Europe, shift its crops from fighting to global markets.

The European Union, concerned that the Istanbul talks will not bear immediate fruit, has been working on half a dozen small-scale rural and river routes outside Ukraine, officials said.

The bloc has deployed more than 100 officials to help Romania, Poland, Moldova and Lithuania for transporting grain by rail, road and river.

These efforts have been plagued by logistical difficulties, including several gauges used in Ukraine and EU countries, expired railway licenses and the necessary dredging of the Danube River.

The EU and Romania are working on a possible route that would use the Danube Delta.

Ukrainian officials estimate that, with the right measures, half a million tons per month could be added to that route, bringing the total to about 1 million tons.

Critics say the alternatives would be extremely labor-intensive and ultimately a drop in the ocean.

EU officials admitted that, at best, such efforts could move around 5 million tonnes per month.

Ukrainian officials estimate him around 8 million tons they should leave the country every month to maintain historical export flows.

The UN-Turkish plan being negotiated would require an enormous level of trust between Ukraine and Russia, a rare commodity in itself after months of death and destruction during the war, as well as careful execution.

At the meeting of the Group of 7 Industrialized Nations in Germany late last month, Guterres expressed optimism that a breakthrough could be reached within 10 days, according to several officials informed of the talks or who had heard.

This was over two weeks ago.

According to three senior government officials, Guterres said the United Nations had secured a solution to a key obstacle:

the mines that Ukraine has placed in its ports to discourage Russia.

Ukraine had sought assurances that Russia would not attack if it removed some of those mines and had also sought long-range missiles to attack Russian submarines and NATO bulk carrier escorts.

Instead, Guterres told leaders that the Ukrainians had agreed to remove only some of the mines and that their Navy or Coast Guard captains were directing the merchant ships into international waters, officials said.

The foreign crews would then take the ships to Istanbul, before continuing on to other destinations.

A key sticking point was the inspection of ships and cargo.

Russia has called for inspections only to ensure that ships only export grain and do not return weapons to Ukraine.

The negotiations led by the United Nations and Turkey also include a pledge to help Russia export its fertilizers and grains.

To do this, the EU may have to lift sanctions on Russian fertilizers, which it has not indicated it wants to do.

Russian wheat isn’t sanctioned, but Russia says its shipping and insurance costs have skyrocketed since the Black Sea was designated a war zone.

“The problem is that those countries have imposed sanctions against some of our seaports, created difficulties with cargo and cargo insurance,” Putin said on June 30 during a Kremlin meeting with the Indonesian president.

Western officials have openly blamed Russia, accusing its troops of destroying or plundering grain stocks in Ukraine and even trying to sell it overseas.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenhe said Putin is arming hunger in the developing world.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Istanbul and Michael Schwirtz from Kiev, Ukraine. Reports were provided by Farnaz Fassihi and Michael Levenson in New York; Valerie Hopkins in Tivat, Montenegro; Michael Crowley in Bali, Indonesia; and Gülsin Harman and Safak Timur in Istanbul.

c.2022 The New York Times Company