(Kyiv) Russia on Tuesday warned Ukraine against plans to continue grain exports through the Black Sea, warning there were no more ‘security guarantees’ after a deal expires which allowed them to be transported despite the war.
“In the absence of appropriate security guarantees, certain risks” have arisen, warned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding that “if something is to be worked out without Russia, these risks must be taken into account. account “.
He was responding to a question about the willingness expressed by Ukraine to continue exporting its grain through the Black Sea, with or without Moscow’s agreement on ship safety.
Echoing this, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, that the end of the agreement meant “the withdrawal of navigation safety guarantees” making the northwest of the Black Sea, through which the freighters circulate, a “temporarily dangerous zone”.
“The ministers considered other options to provide cereals to the most needy countries,” Russian diplomacy said in a statement.
Russia on Monday signified its refusal to maintain the cereals agreement signed in July 2022 under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, and since extended several times, denouncing the obstacles to trade in fertilizers and other Russian products.
On Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov also accused Ukraine of using the maritime corridor opened under the agreement “for military purposes”, after Kyiv struck the strategic bridge connecting Russian territory with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula the day before. Crimean.
retaliatory strikes
In retaliation, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that it had destroyed by a wave of missiles “the installations where terrorist acts against Russia were prepared”, as well as the place where naval drones are manufactured.
Before dawn, six Kalibr missiles and 21 Iranian-made Shahed-136 explosive drones sent by Russia to Odessa (south) were “destroyed” by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, for his part indicated the governor of the region, Oleg Kiper, on Telegram.
“The debris from the destroyed missiles and the shock wave damaged port infrastructure and several private homes,” he added, without giving any indication of the extent of the damage.
In total, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, 31 of the 36 attack drones launched overnight by Russia on Ukrainian territory were shot down.
Odessa and its region are home to the three ports through which Ukraine could, under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, export its agricultural products despite the war and the blockade imposed by the Russians.
In one year, the agreement has enabled the removal of nearly 33 million tonnes of cereals from Ukrainian ports, mainly corn and wheat, helping to stabilize world food prices and avert the risk of shortages.
“Even without Russia, everything must be done so that we can use this corridor (for exports) in the Black Sea. We are not afraid,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.
Moscow’s refusal to extend this agreement has been denounced by several Western heads of state and by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, according to whom “hundreds of millions of people face hunger” and go to ” pay the price”.
– Russian progress on the ground
For the time being, Russia is rejecting calls for the renewal of the agreement and Sergei Lavrov has warned Hakan Fidan of the dismantling of the coordination center opened in Istanbul within this framework.
On the front, the Russian army on Tuesday reported a rare 1.5 kilometer advance near Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine, an area where Kyiv has seen a concentration of Russian troops and talks fierce fighting for several days.
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandre Syrsky, spoke on Tuesday on Telegram of a “difficult” but “under control” situation in the east.
On the Crimean Bridge, “vehicle traffic has been restored in the opposite direction” on one lane of the bridge, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khousnullin said early Tuesday.
A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) told AFP on Monday that the attack, which killed two civilians, was carried out by the Ukrainian navy and secret service using drones. naval.
This is the second time that this bridge, built at great expense shortly after the annexation and symbolizing in the eyes of the Kremlin the attachment of Crimea to Russia, has been attacked by Ukraine.
In October 2022, an explosion attributed by Moscow to a truck bomb had caused extensive damage and it had taken months of work to restore it fully to service.
Monday evening, Vladimir Putin said he was waiting for “concrete proposals to improve the security of this important and strategic transport infrastructure”.