Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement this Friday afternoon to allow exports. wheat The Ukrainian has so far been blocked in the ports of this country. The product can be marketed to the world first through the Black Sea and then the Bosphorus.
The agreement was signed this Friday in Istanbul, the city bathed in exactly these waters. Turkey and United Nations Months of negotiations and mediation between Moscow and Moscow Kyiv. Currently 22 million tons grain They are trapped in Ukrainian silos waiting to be exported.
The President of Turkey will also attend the signature, which took place in a presidential office in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoganand the General Secretary UNPortuguese Antonio Guterrestraveling from New York to the Turkish capital this Thursday night to sign this agreement.
Truce
According to the agreement – still awaiting the publication of the final text – Ukrainian ports will continue to operate, and Russia will undertake not to use this opportunity to attack them. kyiv will promise not to import on its behalf armament and ammunition via ships returning to port.
“We work intensively with constant travel and negotiations. This deal could potentially save hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. These people can access food Farhan Haq, Guterres’s deputy spokesman, said Thursday night.
But suspicions remain: Ukraine has been saying that for months – and investigations show it – that Russia has been systematically stealing wheat stored in Moscow’s occupied ports. war within the territory of Ukraine. It is above all three cities: Sevastopol —in Crimea—, Mariupol and Berdyansk.
Russia sells tons of grain to countries like Turkey, Syria or Egypt via the Black Sea and the Bosphorus. Ukraine also accuses Russia of bombing the country’s fields and crops. farmers Ukrainians knowingly. Despite this new agreement, the war and the Russian occupation continue with all their brutality.
Control Center
According to the agreement, Russia and Ukraine will create a command bridge in Istanbul, where Turkey and the United Nations will be represented, to check that the agreement is fulfilled, that the Ukrainian cargo ships are not carrying weapons and that the Russian Army will not attack them. .
“Ukraine will only sign an agreement that guarantees the security of the southern regions of the country, the strong position of our Armed Forces in the Black Sea, and the safe export of Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets,” the ministry spokesman said. ministry, Oleh Nikolenko.
“What interests us right now is to assure Russia to implement this agreement. It’s been a long time since Moscow lifted this naval blockade,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday.