MONDAY, 6 JUNE 2022, 16:28
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, has called on Western partners not to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assurances that Russia will not use the corridor for grain export through the port of Odesa to attack the city.
According to European Pravda, Kuleba posted such a statement on his Twitter account.
“Putin says he will not use trade routes to attack Odesa. This is the same Putin who told German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron that he was not going to attack Ukraine – days before launching a full-scale invasion of our country. We cannot trust Putin, his words are empty,” Kuleba wrote.
Dmytro Kuleba said earlier that Ukraine is ready to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of grain exports through the port of Odesa, but the main question is how to ensure that Russia does not use it for military purposes. According to him, Ukraine continues to look for solutions together with the UN and partners.
As Ukraine is known to be one of the world’s largest exporters of grain and oil and exports mainly by sea, Russia’s blockade of Black Sea ports threatens global prices for these products and shortages in a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Ukraine and its partners are discussing the possibility of establishing an international mission to unblock Ukrainian maritime exports and, as a first step, require Russia to withdraw its forces from the maritime waters around Ukraine and provide security guarantees of non-aggression.
Meanwhile, Russia says it is ready to allow ships carrying Ukrainian grain “if Ukraine demines ports” and in exchange for lifting sanctions. The United States and Britain have already said they are not planning to consider such concessions.
In a recent conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a vote in the UN on lifting the Russian blockade in Odesa.
The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, told the UN Secretary General that he was ready to provide a “grain corridor” through Belarus to the Baltic ports, if those ports allow the loading of Belarusian goods.
