Russian strikes on Odessa do not hamper grain exports, says Moscow

Moscow maintains its line of defense. Russian strikes against the Ukrainian port of Odessa are not an obstacle to Ukrainian grain exports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday (July 25th). These bombings were aimed “only military infrastructurehe assuredit is not at all related to the infrastructure used for the implementation of the grain export agreement.” “That is why it cannot and should not interfere with the start of the loading process”he added during his daily telephone briefing to the press.

These strikes took place the day after the signing of an agreement involving Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN to allow cereal exports from Ukraine in order to reduce the risk of the world food crisis which is draws because of the Russian offensive. The agreement signed Friday in Istanbul provides in particular for the establishment of secure corridors to allow the circulation in the Black Sea of ​​merchant ships and the export of 20 to 25 million tonnes of grain cereals blocked in Ukraine. The export of wheat, corn and sunflower from Ukraine was 90% by sea and mainly through Odessa, the main Ukrainian port in the Black Sea, which concentrated 60% of the country’s port activity.