The freighter “Joseph Schulte” has arrived safely. Despite the Russian blockade, the first container ship to depart from Ukraine after the end of the grain deal arrived as scheduled Thursday evening in Istanbul, according to shipping sites.
The container ship, flying the flag of Hong Kong, left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Wednesday, a challenge to Russia which has threatened to attack such vessels since it ended in July the agreement by which Ukraine could export its grain.
The container ship uses “a new humanitarian corridor” established by Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, while Russia last weekend fired warning shots at a cargo ship heading for Izmail, a port on the Danube in southern Ukraine.
The Turkish presidency broke its silence on Thursday evening on these shots targeting a ship which belongs, although flying the flag of Palau, to a Turkish company. “Interlocutors in Russia have been warned to avoid this kind of initiative which could raise tensions in the Black Sea,” Ankara said.
Moscow has also stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube port infrastructure since withdrawing from the UN-Turkish grain deal that came into effect in the summer. 2022.
The latter allowed Ukrainian cereals to leave the ports of southern Ukraine despite the blockade put in place by Russia. At the same time, the international community is looking to find a way to secure routes for transporting grain to the rest of the world in time for this fall’s harvest, with Ukraine and Russia being leading exporters.
Last year’s deal has helped lower global food prices and provided Ukrainians with significant incomes. Ukraine now exports a large part of its agricultural products via the Danube.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US officials are in talks with Turkey, Ukraine and its neighbors over increased traffic along the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea at the Ukraine-Romania border. .
One of these officials affirmed that Washington would study all options, including that of a military accompaniment of Ukrainian merchant ships. But an official from the Turkish Ministry of Defense who requested anonymity appeared to dismiss the initiative on Thursday.
“Our efforts are focused on reactivating the grain deal,” he told private Turkish broadcaster NTV.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this month and restoring the deal on Ukrainian grain exports is expected to be on the agenda for their discussions.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to maintain his country’s neutrality and enhance his diplomatic role since the outbreak of the war. Turkey thus hosted the first two rounds of peace talks with Ukraine and intensified its exchanges with Russia while supplying arms to kyiv.
The Russians have pulled out of the grain deal after claiming it has failed in its aim of benefiting famine-stricken populations, particularly in Africa with whom they seek to strengthen ties to avoid isolation on the world stage.
Russia has since asked Turkey for help in exporting grain to African countries, excluding Ukraine.
In an interview Thursday with AFP, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba in this context announced a “long-term” fight to “revive” Kiev’s relations with Africa.
Russian attempts to obtain unilateral control of navigation on the Black Sea come against the backdrop of a military counter-offensive launched in June by Ukrainian forces. This counter-offensive relies on new Western equipment but progresses slowly.
Only Ukraine will decide the terms of a possible peace negotiation with Russia, repeated Thursday the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.
Two days earlier, his chief of staff Stian Jenssen had irritated kyiv by suggesting that a solution to the conflict could be for Ukraine to cede territories to Russia in return for NATO membership.
Dmytro Kouleba assured that Ukraine “didn’t feel” the pressure from its Western allies to achieve quick results.
