The transport of Ukrainian cereals was blocked Sunday in the Black Sea after Russia suspended the agreement on their exports, vital for the world food supply, a decision castigated by kyiv, Washington and the EU.
Moscow assured that this decision was taken after a drone attack on these ships in Crimea, but Ukraine denounced “a false pretext” and called for pressure to be put on by Russia “to recommit to respecting its obligations for this agreement concluded in July under the aegis of the UN and Turkey, the only one between Moscow and kyiv since the beginning of the conflict.
The Joint Coordination Center (JCC) responsible for overseeing this agreement confirmed that no cargo movement had been validated for the day on Sunday. Nine cargo ships were able to use the maritime corridor in the Black Sea on Saturday and “more than ten others” are ready to do the same in both directions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the Russian decision “in fact did not date from today”. “Russia started to worsen the global food shortage in September, when it started blocking the movements of ships carrying our agricultural products,” he said.
“This is a transparent Russian intention to raise the specter of large-scale famine in Africa and Asia again,” he added, calling for a “vigorous international response.”
According to him, at least 176 ships carrying more than two million tons of grain were already blocked by Moscow.
US President Joe Biden called the decision “scandalous”. “There was no reason for them to do this,” he told reporters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia is “again using food as a weapon”, exacerbating “already serious humanitarian crises and food insecurity” in the world.
The EU urged Russia to “reverse its decision”, which “endangers the main export route for cereals and fertilizers which are needed to respond to the world food crisis caused by the war”.
” Fake news “
The grain deal has allowed the export of millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports since the conflict began in February. This blockage had caused food prices to soar, raising fears of famine.
The UN, guarantor of the agreement, called for it to be preserved, stressing that it had a “positive impact” for access to food for millions of people around the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up criticism of the deal in recent weeks, pointing out that exports from Russia, another major grain producer, were suffering because of the sanctions.
Moscow justified this suspension by a drone attack which targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Saturday morning stationed in the bay of Sevastopol, in annexed Crimea.
“In view of the terrorist act carried out by the kyiv regime with the participation of British experts against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in the security of grain corridors, Russia is suspending its participation in the implementation of the agreement,” the Russian Defense Ministry announced.
Faced with these accusations, the British Defense reacted by denouncing “false information” intended to “divert attention”.
Russian authorities say the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday with ‘nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones’, causing ‘minor damage’ to a minesweeper vessel and the bay’s containment boom of Sevastopol.
“The preparation for this terrorist act and the training of military personnel from the Ukrainian 73rd Special Maritime Operations Center were carried out by British specialists based in Ochakov, in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Made up story”
Moscow has also accused London of being involved in the explosions that damaged the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September and promised to submit the question to the UN Security Council.
The British Ministry of Defense denounced a “fabricated story” by Russia to “distract attention from its disastrous management of the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
Shortly before the announcement of the suspension of the cereals agreement, the Russian Minister of Agriculture had once again criticized the text, accusing the EU countries of monopolizing Ukrainian exports which should go to poor countries. These allegations had previously been denied by the Coordination Center located in Turkey.
“The grain agreement, unfortunately, not only did not solve the problems of the countries in need, but even aggravated them in a certain sense,” said Dmitry Patrushev.
In Ukraine, on the southern front, AFP journalists witnessed artillery battles in the village of Kobzartsi, the last locality on the Ukrainian side before the line of contact with the Russians.
“It could go wrong there. But we know that they suffer much more on their side than on ours,” assured a Ukrainian soldier, Oleksiï, in his twenties.
Both sides are preparing in this area for the battle for the city of Kherson, the regional capital, from where the occupation authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians, what Ukraine has called “deportations”.