- Ship carrying grain from Ukraine inspected in Turkey
- The ship, which is headed for Lebanon, transits the Bosphorus
- The shipment is the first to leave Ukraine in wartime
- But the Ukrainian leader says much more is needed
- Kyiv urgently needs to send 10 million tons to reduce the deficit
KYIV/ISTANBUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy played down the significance of his country’s first grain export shipment since Russia invaded, saying it carried a fraction of the harvest that Kyiv must sell to help save its battered economy.
His nasty comments, via video to students in Australia on Wednesday, came as the ship completed an inspection in Turkey before passing through the Bosphorus Strait en route to Lebanon under a deal intended to alleviate a global food crisis. Read more
The ship, Razoni, left Odesa on Monday in the Black Sea carrying 26,527 tons of corn to the Lebanese port of Tripoli. It followed a UN-brokered grain and fertilizer export deal between Moscow and Kyiv last month, a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a long war of attrition.
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But Zelenskiy, speaking through an interpreter, said more time was needed to see if other grain shipments would follow.
“Recently, thanks to the UN in collaboration with Turkey, we had a first ship with the delivery of grain, but it’s still nothing. But we hope it’s a trend that will continue,” he told the students.
He said Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain producers before the war, needed to export at least 10 million tonnes of grain to urgently help reduce its budget deficit, which had reached $5 billion in month.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the grain shipment but also said it was “just a first step”.
A senior Turkish official said three ships could leave Ukrainian ports daily after the departure of the Razoni, while Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said another 17 ships had been loaded with agricultural products and were waiting to set sail
Ukraine’s forecast for its wartime harvest in 2022 has risen to 65-67 million tonnes of grain from 60 million tonnes, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Wednesday.
In a Telegram message, he praised farmers for going ahead with harvesting, even in areas where shelling continues.
Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of Europe, expects to export 20 million tons of grain in silos and 40 million tons of the current crop, initially from Odesa and nearby Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk.
The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, carrying Ukrainian grain, is seen in the Black Sea off Kilyos near Istanbul, Turkey, August 2, 2022. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
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“The war … is almost killing the economy. It is in a coma,” Zelenskiy said. “Russia’s blockade of ports is a huge loss for the economy.”
Zelenskiy has repeatedly warned that Moscow may try to block exports despite signing the deal last month.
PUTIN AND SCHROEDER
Russia, which blockaded the ports after launching its “special military operation” on February 24, has said it wants more done to facilitate exports of its own grain and fertilizer.
It has denied responsibility for the food crisis, saying sanctions from the West, which sees the war as an unprovoked imperial-style Russian land grab, have slowed its exports.
Russia also said the United States was directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine because American spies were approving and coordinating Ukrainian missile strikes against Russian forces. Read more
US President Joe Biden, the subject of China’s fury and Russia’s scorn over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, has said he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia and has supplied billions of dollars in weapons to Kyiv. He said U.S. officials do not want a direct confrontation between U.S. and Russian soldiers.
Russia has strongly supported China in the Taiwan dispute. Read more
Ukraine said on Wednesday that any negotiated peace deal with Moscow would depend on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, rejecting comments by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Russia wanted a “negotiated solution “. Read more
Schroeder, who is friends with President Vladimir Putin, said he met the Kremlin leader in Moscow last week. Read more
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had also told Schroeder that, in theory, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was ready to be used to help boost gas supplies to Europe.
Germany and some other European countries are planning a winter supply crisis after Moscow cuts gas supplies through another pipeline, Nord Stream 1, citing technical problems with gas turbines supplied by Siemens Energy. Read more
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Reuters bureau reports; Written by Andrew Osborn and Nick Macfie; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Angus MacSwan
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.