His scathing comments, via video to students in Australia on Wednesday, came as the ship completed an inspection in Turkey before passing through the Bosphorus Straits en route to Lebanon as part of a deal aimed at easing the global food crisis. read more The ship, Razoni, left Odessa in the Black Sea early Monday 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 Kiev last month – a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a protracted war of attrition. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register However, Zelensky, speaking through an interpreter, said more time was needed to see if other grain shipments would follow. “Just recently, thanks to the UN in cooperation with Turkey, we had a first ship with a grain delivery, 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 top grain producers before the war, needed to export at least 10 million tons of grain to urgently help reduce its budget deficit that was running at $5 billion a month. US Secretary of State Anthony 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 Razoni’s departure, while Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said 17 more ships were loaded with agricultural products and waiting to depart. Ukraine’s forecast for its wartime harvest in 2022 has been raised to 65-67 million tonnes of grain from 60 million tonnes, Prime Minister Denis Smigal said on Wednesday. In a Telegram message, he praised farmers for continuing to harvest, even in areas where shelling continues. Ukraine, known as Europe’s breadbasket, hopes to export 20 million tonnes of grain in silos and 40 million tonnes of the current harvest, initially from Odessa 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 read more “The war … is almost killing the economy. It is in a coma,” Zelensky said. “The blockade of the ports by Russia is a big loss for the economy.” Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Moscow may try to block exports despite the signing of the deal last month.
PUTIN AND SCHRODER
Russia, which blockaded the ports after launching its “special military operation” on February 24, has said it wants more to be 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 US spies approved and coordinated Ukrainian missile attacks against Russian forces. read more US President Joe Biden, the subject of China’s ire and Russia’s scorn during 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 in Kyiv. He said US officials do not want a direct confrontation between US and Russian troops. Russia strongly supported China in the Taiwan dispute. read more Ukraine said on Wednesday that any peace settlement with Moscow would depend on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, rejecting comments by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder that Russia wanted a “negotiated solution”. read more Schroeder, who is a friend of 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 gas pipeline was ready to be used to help boost gas supplies to Europe. Germany and some other European countries are planning a winter supply crunch after Moscow cut gas supplies through another pipeline, Nord Stream 1, citing technical problems with gas turbines supplied by Siemens Energy. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report from Reuters offices. Written by Andrew Osborn and Nick Macfie. Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Angus MacSwan Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
