Russia has decided not to renew the wheat deal . The announcement came yesterday morning from the Kremlin, on the last day before the expiry of the agreement that a year ago thawed grain exports by sea from war-torn Ukraine. But also - Moscow denies the connection between the two events - a few hours after the attack on the Crimean bridge.
"Unfortunately , the part of these agreements relating to Russia has not yet been implemented, so its validity has expired ," said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, also adding that "as soon as the Russian part of the agreements is satisfied, Russia will return immediately upon implementation of the agreement".
Moscow had long threatened to withdraw from the wheat pact arguing that "obstacles" to its exports of cereals and fertilizers had not been removed as agreed in an agreement parallel to the one on Ukrainian wheat.
Now the Kremlin's announcement worries the whole world, increasing fears for global food security. "Hundreds of millions of people facing hunger and consumers facing a global cost-of-living crisis will pay the price," warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres . Harsh criticisms of Moscow have also come from London, Paris, Berlin, from Washington - which spoke of "an act of cruelty" and denied that the part of the agreement relating to Russia was not implemented - and from the EU, with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen who described the decision of Putin's government as "cynical" .
Zelensky argued that Kiev is ready to continue exporting grain by sea even without Russia . "We are not afraid. We've been contacted by companies that own vessels. They said they were ready," the Ukrainian president said.
" We are ready to replace the supply of Ukrainian grain to countries in need for free ," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced today.
In the first five months of the war , the Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea remained completely at a standstill, but the agreement signed last summer had unblocked the situation , allowing almost 33 million tons of Ukrainian cereals to be exported by sea . The agreement had made it possible to restabilize cereal prices after months of dangerous increases and also had the aim of alleviating the global food crisis that had arisen. Ukraine is in fact one of the largest producers of grain in the world, before the war it produced about a tenth of the world's grain .
This is why Moscow's decision worries the whole world, even Giorgia Meloni lashed out against Putin : «Russia's decision to interrupt the wheat agreement is further proof of who is a friend and who is an enemy of the poorest countries. Let the leaders of those nations who do not want to distinguish between the attacked and the aggressor reflect. Using the raw material that feeds the world as a weapon is another offense against humanity ».
(Unioneonline/L)