BRUSSELS — There are a lot of moving parts to the grain deal reached by Russia and Ukraine, which officials didn’t think was even possible until mid-June, largely because the war continues and trust between the parties is extremely low. Here’s what you need to know about the grain problem and how it can be tackled now.
Why did Ukrainian grain get stuck inside the country?
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it deployed warships along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. Ukraine mined these waters to prevent a Russian naval attack. This meant that ports used to export Ukrainian grain were closed to commercial shipping. Russia also looted grain stocks, mined grain fields so they could not be harvested, and destroyed grain storage facilities. Ukrainian soldiers in a coastal position in Odessa, along the Black Sea coast, in March.Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
How will the operation work?
Ukrainian captains will direct ships full of grain from the ports of Odessa, Yuzhne and Chornomorsk. A joint command center with officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations will be set up immediately in Istanbul to monitor every movement of the flotillas. Note: The arrow indicates the general direction of travel. does not represent one exact route. • Source: European and other government officials Note: The arrow indicates the general direction of travel. does not represent one exact route. • Source: European and other government officials The ships will head into Turkish waters to be inspected by a joint team of Turkish, UN, Ukrainian and Russian officials, then deliver their cargo to destinations around the world, returning for another inspection by the joint team before returning to Ukraine . The agreement specifies that the inspection team’s primary responsibility is to check for “unauthorized cargo and personnel on ships entering or leaving Ukrainian ports.” A key Russian demand was that returning ships not carry weapons to Ukraine. The parties agreed that ships and port facilities used for their operations would be protected from hostilities. The company is expected to quickly start shipping five million tons of grain per month. At this rate, and considering that 2.5 million tons are already being transported by land and river to Ukraine’s friendly neighbors, stocks of nearly 20 million tons should be cleared within three to four months. This will free up space in storage facilities for the new harvest already underway in Ukraine.
What are the risks?
No broad ceasefire has been negotiated, so ships will be traveling through a war zone. Attacks near the ships or the ports they use could tear the deal apart. Another risk would be a breach of trust or disagreement between the inspectors and the officials of the joint administration. The role of the United Nations and Turkey is to mediate on the ground in such disputes and to monitor and enforce the agreement. The agreement is valid for 120 days and the UN hopes it will be renewed. Wheat harvest in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region last week.Credit…Sergey Bobok/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Will this immediately solve world hunger and lower food prices?
No. World hunger is a persistent problem caused by poor food distribution and price manipulation, which affects some parts of the world year after year. It is often exacerbated by conflict and has also been affected by climate change. The war in Ukraine, which produces a large share of the world’s wheat, has added a huge burden to grain distribution networks, driving up prices and fueling famine. Officials say the deal has the potential to increase the flow of wheat to Somalia within weeks, averting a full-blown famine, and should lead to a gradual fall in global grain prices. But given the fragility of the deal, grain markets are unlikely to return to normal any time soon.
What is this about Russia?
Russia is also a major exporter of grains and fertilizers and the agreement is expected to facilitate the sale of these products on the world market. The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that its reserves cannot be exported due to sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. The measures don’t actually affect those goods, but private shipping companies, insurers, banks and other businesses are reluctant to help Russia export grain and fertilizer, fearing they might face sanctions or that doing business with Russia would they could damage their reputation. . Offering reassurance, the European Union on July 21 issued a legal clarification on its sanctions saying that banks and other companies involved in the grain trade were not actually banned. The United Nations said that, armed with similar assurances from the United States, it was in talks with the private sector and that trade from Russia – especially the Russian port of Novorossiysk – should be accelerated. Correction: July 22, 2022 An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the process agreed upon by Ukraine and Russia for the grain ships. The ships will transfer their cargo to various destinations and return to Ukrainian ports, stopping for inspections in Turkey. Their cargo will not necessarily be unloaded in Turkey to be transported to their destinations on other ships. — Matina Stevis-Grindnev
title: “Russia Ukraine War Breaking News The New York Times " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-07” author: “Kevin Landry”
DRUZKIVKA, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials have been sounding the alarm for months. The world’s nuclear watchdog warned of the extraordinary dangers just this week. Then on Friday, artillery duels near a giant nuclear plant on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine posed new security risks. The explosions in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – at about 2:30 p.m. damaged power lines and threatened to destroy the plant, forcing engineers to switch one of its six reactors down, state nuclear company Energoatom said. Hours later, a second series of three explosions destroyed an outbuilding near one of the nuclear reactors, raising the risk of a hydrogen leak and fire, the company said. Fighting has intensified in recent weeks near the nuclear complex, which the Russian military controls and uses as a fortress, even as Ukrainian engineers continue to operate it. For about a month, Russia has used the site to launch artillery strikes on Ukrainian targets without fear of retaliation, as the Ukrainian military cannot fire without risking hitting security equipment, reactors or spent fuel storage facilities. Ukrainian officials say the Russians are aiming to disrupt a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south. After Friday afternoon’s explosions knocked out a high-voltage power line, plant managers cut output from one of the reactors. Previously, three of the plant’s six reactors were operational, two were on standby and one was undergoing scheduled repairs. It was not clear whether the reactor whose operation was switched on Friday was put on standby, said Dmytro Orlov, a former plant engineer who is now mayor of Enerhodar, where the plant is located. “This is an unusual event but not unforeseeable,” he said. “The staff was prepared.” He compared it to the emergency response when a power line is damaged by a fire or other accident. Energoatom, the state energy company, released a statement on the Telegram social networking site saying Russian artillery fire had cut the power line. “The Russian military again resorted to provocation,” the company said. He said an industrial space on the complex site was hit three times, knocking out wiring and a transformer. The statement said operators cut production and disconnected a reactor from the power grid. “No releases of radioactive substances were recorded,” the announcement states. Russian state media blamed Ukrainian forces for the explosions and said they started a fire. Hours later, the energy company reported a second attack on Telegram, saying the Russians fired three rockets that landed near one of the nuclear reactors. According to the announcement, the explosions caused damage to an auxiliary building and a specialized station. “The risk of fire is high,” the company said. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was aware of the reports and was seeking further information on the situation. Ukrainian officials say they have little choice but to endure the Russian bombardment. In July, Ukraine’s military intelligence service said it used a precision “kamikaze” drone, which explodes on contact with a target, to destroy a Russian missile launcher and air defense system located about 150 meters from a reactor, without destroy the reactor. himself. The IAEA has warned of serious risks from the factory’s plight. The cornerstones of nuclear safety, he said, are being discarded by the plant even as it continues to operate. Among the shortcomings, he said, is a lack of physical security and regulatory oversight, which is now at an impasse. Those concerns were echoed by Britain’s Ministry of Defense on Friday. In its daily intelligence briefing, the ministry said Russian troops “likely have undermined the security” of the plant by using it as a base to “target Ukrainian territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River.” Fighting around the compound in March sparked a fire that sparked global concerns of a possible nuclear accident. —Andrew E. Kramer and Cora Engelbrecht
title: “Russia Ukraine War Breaking News The New York Times " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Leonard Sprouse”
WASHINGTON — Immediately after Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison by a Moscow judge Thursday, calls grew louder for President Biden to find a way to bring her home, even as critics decried that the offer prisoner exchange with Moscow rewarded the Russian hostage. . The result is a painful dilemma for the Biden administration as it tries to maintain a hard line against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war in Ukraine. “There is nothing good here,” said Andrea Schneider, an expert in international conflict resolution at the Cardozo School of Law. “No matter what Biden does, he’s going to be criticized — either that we’re giving too much or we’re not working hard enough.” Kremlin officials had said exchange talks could not proceed before her trial was over, but even with an official verdict and sentence, a deal may not happen soon. “I think the fact that Putin didn’t say yes right away means he looked at the US offer and said, ‘Well, this is their first offer. I can take more than that,” said Jared Genser, a human rights lawyer who represents Americans detained by foreign governments. The Biden administration has proposed swapping Ms. Griner and Paul N. Whelan, a former Marine convicted in Moscow of espionage in 2020, for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is halfway through a 25-year federal prison sentence for offering to sell . weapons to a Colombian guerrilla group that the United States then considered a terrorist organization. Mr. Biden is being squeezed from two sides. On one side are Ms. Griner’s supporters. Her wife, Cheryl Griner, has made public calls for Mr. Biden to cut a deal with Mr. Putin as soon as possible. These calls have been echoed by the Reverend Al Sharpton, Democratic activist groups, TV pundits, professional athletes and social media celebrities. But there has also been criticism from the other side of Mr. Biden — and accusations that Mr. Biden is bending to blackmail from Mr. Putin, a man he has called a war criminal. “That’s why dictatorships — like Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia — take Americans hostage, because they know they’re going to get something for it,” Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Florida, told Newsmax last week. “They know that eventually some administration will pay. And that just puts a target on the back of every American out there.” Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, repeated the criticism in an interview with Fox News last week, saying Mr. Bout’s release would “probably lead to the arrest” of more Americans overseas. And former President Donald J. Trump, who is likely to run again in 2024, criticized the proposed deal in blunt terms. He said Mr Bout was “absolutely one of the worst in the world and he will be given freedom because a potentially depraved person goes to Russia loaded with drugs”. (Russian officials who arrested Ms. Griner at a Moscow airport in mid-February found less than a gram of cannabis vapor oil in her bags.)
