The Kremlin warned Ukraine on Tuesday against trying to export its grain across the Black Sea after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for international support to continue the shipments despite Russia’s withdrawal from a landmark wartime agreement.
The warning came a day after Russia, whose navy exercises a de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, unilaterally terminated a year-old agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN under which Ukraine had been able to ship its grain via sea to Istanbul and beyond. That decision put pressure on global grain markets and also raised fears that hunger in some countries in Africa and West Asia could grow more serious.
In an overnight speech, Zelensky said that he had sent letters to the secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey proposing that Ukraine continue to ship its grain, calling its exports “necessary for everyone in the world. The only thing that is needed now is its careful implementation and decisive pressure from the world on the terrorist state,” Zelensky added, referring to Russia.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said that such a course would carry risks, and suggested that vessels travelling through the Black Sea without its consent would be in danger.
“We are talking about a zone that is very close to the area of armed hostilities. Certain risks emerge there without guarantees,” Peskov said.
New York Times News Service