Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday it was “too early” to rejoice after the unanimously welcomed resumption of Ukrainian grain exports from the port of Odessa.
“Right now it’s too early to draw conclusions and make predictions,” he said in his daily video address. “We are going to wait to see how the agreement works and if security is really guaranteed.”
A first since the beginning of the war.
For the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion almost six months ago, a ship loaded with 26,000 tons of corn left Odessa, on the Black Sea, for the port of Tripoli in Lebanon, in accordance with an international agreement supervised by the UN and intended to alleviate the world food crisis.
“The port has become operational again, exports have resumed, we can say that this is the first positive sign that we will manage to stop the world food crisis,” the Ukrainian president added.
“It is the responsibility of our partners, especially the United Nations and Turkey” to ensure the safety of these shipments, insisted the Ukrainian president.
Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement with the UN and Turkey on July 22 in Istanbul to unblock cereal exports due to the risk of famine in the world. The two belligerents signed two identical but separate texts, at the request of the Ukrainians who refused to sign with the Russians.
Source: BFM TV
