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The Ukrainian government accused Moscow on Wednesday of preventing the operation of the initiative to export grain and other agricultural products through the Black Sea.
In a joint statement, the Ukrainian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, and Infrastructures, Oleksandr Kubrakov, denounced that the loaded ship inspection process with Ukrainian products when passing through the Bosphorus Strait is deliberately delayed by Russian representatives.
Every day, only half of the ten planned inspections are carried out,” the two Ukrainian ministers said.
Consequence, around 140 boats queue up to be inspectedthe vast majority of them for more than a month, Kuleba and Kubrakov continued, stressing that “the food security of countries that depend on exports of Ukrainian agricultural products is threatened.”
The statement also highlighted that, by interfering with the operation of the ‘grain corridor’, Russia takes advantage of the situation to expand its commercial operations in the Black SeaTherefore, they denounced, the volume of Russian cargo traffic in 2022 exceeded the levels of 2021.
At the same time, they continued, Russian commercial ships are not inspected in the Bosphorus, which allows them to transport military materiel destined for the war in Ukraine.
For all these reasons, the Ukrainian government urged the United Nations and Turkey, as guarantors of the ‘grain corridor’ initiative, to demand that Moscow stop hampering Ukrainian operations, unblock commercial shipping from Ukrainian ports, and end the attempt to “stockpile food.”
The Kremlin on Sunday refused to further expand the cereal export pact, which expires in March, if sanctions on trade in Russian agricultural products are not lifted.
Without tangible results in the implementation of the Russia/UN memorandum, the design of the Istanbul package of agreements and the very length of the Ukrainian document are not expedient,” said Sergei Vershinin, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister.
Source: Observadora
