MOSCOW / KIEV (dpa-AFX) – In the war between Russia and Ukraine, one of the few valid agreements between the two sides is on the brink of failure. The international grain agreement, with which Ukraine was able to sell millions of tons of corn and wheat across the Black Sea despite the fighting, expires this Monday. Until the last hours, Moscow showed no willingness to extend it. In Africa in particular, there is great concern that important foodstuffs will then become even scarcer.
Both warring factions continued to fight bitterly over the weekend. According to Western experts, the Ukrainian counter-offensive is making little headway. Kremlin chief Wladimir Putin threatened after the arrival of the first deliveries of internationally banned cluster munitions from the USA in Ukraine that they would also use such munitions. Russia has “sufficient reserves” for this, he said on state television. According to reports, Russia has long been using cluster bombs.
Zelenskyj insists on “complete liberation”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that the goal is the “complete liberation” of his country from Russian occupation. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported several Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which had been occupied by Russia since 2014, all of which had been repelled. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has its port in Sevastopol. The Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country has lasted almost 17 months.
Baerbock sees no chance for early negotiations
In view of such tones, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is very pessimistic about the prospects for peace in Ukraine. In the foreseeable future, she sees no basis for negotiations with Putin, the Greens politician told several Springer Group media outlets. “I wish we could negotiate, but at the moment it’s not (about) what you wish for. It’s about facing reality.”
Possibly the last grain carrier has sailed
The grain agreement, which was painstakingly negotiated with the help of Turkey and the United Nations, expires this Monday at 11:00 p.m. CEST. The Ukraine – one of the world’s most important grain exporters before the war – was able to ship 33 million tons in the past twelve months. On Sunday, one of the last ships may have set off from the port of Odessa, the freighter “TQ Samsun”. According to the UN, it is loaded with more than 15,000 tons of rapeseed.
Kremlin insists on easing western sanctions
Many other governments and the United Nations are appealing to Russia not to let the agreement expire. According to the Kremlin, Putin justified the refusal in a telephone call with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa by saying that Moscow’s demands for an end to export restrictions on Russian food and fertilizer would not be met. The Kremlin wants the West to relax sanctions imposed because of the war. However, the West is not ready for this.
South Korea also promises to support Ukraine
The agreement was also the subject of a first meeting between Zelenskyy and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Kiev on Saturday. Yoon promised support. Zelenskyj later said in a video message that the extent of international aid would determine when Russia’s war against his country would end.
Use of cluster bombs outlawed internationally
The delivery of cluster munitions, which US President Joe Biden recently approved, is particularly controversial in Western aid. Ukraine has so far left open the circumstances under which it intends to use cluster bombs. Such bombs still explode in the air and spread projectiles over larger areas. Germany and 110 other countries have outlawed them for this reason – but not the USA, Russia and Ukraine.
Kyiv denies plans to assassinate Russian journalists
Meanwhile, Russia’s domestic secret service FSB accused the Ukrainian secret service SBU of planning assassination attempts against prominent journalists. Accordingly, an assassination attempt on the editor-in-chief of the state television station RT, Margarita Simonyan, was prevented. The prominent presenter Xenia Sobchak should also have been killed. Ukraine denied the allegations. The information on both sides cannot be independently verified./cs/DP/he