2023-02-15T14:15:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T05:53:06+03:00

Ukrainian news

Ukraine Calling On UN And Turkey To Demand From RF Immediate Stop Of Delays In Work Of "Grain Corridor"

Ukraine Calling On UN And Turkey To Demand From RF Immediate Stop Of Delays In Work Of "Grain Corridor"

Ukraine is calling on the United Nations (UN) and Turkey to demand from Russia an immediate stop of artificial delays in the work of the "grain corridor" through the Black Sea. This is stated in the joint statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, and the Vice Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, the Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, regarding Russia's obstruction of shipping in the Black Sea, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"We call on the international community, in particular the UN and Turkey as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand from the Russian Federation an immediate stop of artificial delays in the work of the grain corridor through the Black Sea, to stop the Russian Federation's attempts to use food as a weapon, and to unblock commercial shipping to Ukrainian Black Sea ports," the statement reads.

It appears that representatives of the Russian Federation as part of the inspection groups at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul have been systematically delaying the inspection of ships heading through the Bosphorus to/from Ukrainian ports for several months in a row.

In particular, Russian inspectors deliberately slow down the terms of inspections, regularly demand unregulated documentation, refuse to work during working hours and look for other unjustified reasons to stop inspections. Less than half of the planned 10 inspections take place each day.

"Such a destructive policy of Russia has led to a systematic decrease in freight turnover within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. In the last three months, the world has not received 10 million tons of Ukrainian food, and this negative trend is gaining momentum," the statement said.

It is reported that due to the delay in inspections by Russia, a queue of more than 140 vessels has formed in the Bosphorus, the vast majority of which have been waiting there for more than a month.

The ministers emphasize that the food security of countries that depend on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products is under threat. First of all, due to Russia's actions, the countries of the Global South, in particular Africa and Asia, do not receive food.

"On the contrary, by destroying the port infrastructure of Ukraine, creating security threats for the southern regions of Ukraine from the Black Sea side and hindering the operation of the Black Sea Grain Corridor, Moscow is taking advantage of the opportunity for unhindered commercial shipping from Russian Black Sea ports," the statement said.

It is assumed that the volume of transportation through seaports of the Russian Federation in the Azov-Black Sea basin in 2022 amounted to more than 250 million tons, which exceeded the indicators of 2021. At the same time, inspections of these vessels in the Bosphorus do not take place. This, in particular, makes it possible for Russia to use merchant ships to receive military goods in order to continue the war against Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine decided to increase the tonnage of ships as part of the "grain initiative" against the background of Russia's sabotage of inspections.

On January 27, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy reported that the daily number of ship departures from Ukrainian ports within the framework of the "grain agreement" fell to an anti-record figure due to the actions of the Russian side.