Despite the bombing launched by Russian forces against the port of Odessa, which on Saturday deserved worldwide repudiation, the governments of Russia and Ukraine coincidentally confirmed their willingness to launch the Ukrainian grain export plan from the Black Sea coast. Kiev authorities also announced that the first ships could leave tomorrow, Wednesday.

As the war continues its development in the Ukrainian south, the position of both capitals is so sought after turn the page to the military incident on Saturday, when Russia bombed the port of Odessa, the day after the Russians and Ukrainians reached a pact in Istanbul to transport cereals with the mediation of Turkey and the UN.

The decision ratified yesterday will allow it mitigate part of the food crisis in various parts of the world produced by the brake on exports of cereals from the Black Sea area since the beginning of the war on 24 February. Both Russia and Ukraine are two of the largest agricultural producers on the planet. The pact also makes it possible to sell Russian fertilizers, blocked by sanctions in Moscow.

While the Kremlin has assured that it will keep its commitments, Kiev’s Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yuri Vaskov said that the first grain ships will depart from Chornomorsk, near the port of Odesa, en route to Istanbul, from where they will be distributed. Then more ports will be added, such as Pivdenny, to the southwest.

The ports

“In the next two weeks we will be technically ready to export grain from all Ukrainian ports,” he said. According to him, the reopening of the ports will allow monthly exports about 3 million tonswhich will bring Ukraine an additional $ 1,000 million in income.

The deal will allow export from three Ukrainian ports -Odesa, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk- about 22 million tons of grain, maize and other grains stored in silos. Ukrainian cereals will be brought from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus Strait to Istanbul, and from there they will go to world markets.

The agreement provides for the establishment of a control center in that Turkish city, with UN staff and Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian officials, which will coordinate grain exports.

The ships they will be inspected to make sure they are carrying grain and fertilizer and not weapons. In addition, Ukraine promised to clear the areas near the ports, which its forces had planted with explosives to prevent the movement of Russian ships.

Moscow said Odessa airport can also be used after last Saturday’s attack. The attacks that day were targetedonly to military infrastructures “ and non-civilians, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

But Ugo Poletti, editor of the Odesa Journal, told ANSA that Saturday’s raid does not seem to have targeted military installations and indeed he described it as a “threat” of a political nature. The two missiles, he said, hit the terminal of a Ukrainian shipping company, Brooklyn-kyiv, while they did not hit another German-owned neighbor.

Prices

Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandre Kubrakov said that the main obstacle to the announced resumption of exports is precisely the risk of Russian bombing and asked for the protection of Turkey and the UN. The de-mining tasks will be carried out in the corridors created to allow the exit of the grain loads and all ships will be accompanied by ships from Kyiv.

The freezing of grain shipments has triggered the prices of products such as wheat and barley. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil, but Russia’s invasion and blockade of its ports has halted its shipments abroad.

According to the administrator of the International Development Agency, Samantha Power, the US announced yesterday that it is preparing a “plan B” to export cereals in the event that Moscow does not comply with the agreement. “Plan B involves roads, railways and rivers and shipping barges and upgrading rail systems to better align with European ones, “Power told CNN.

According to the official, the emergency plan was decided because “there is no way that we can trust what Vladimir Putin says”.

Source: AFP, ANSA and AP

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