- The UN and Turkey worked to negotiate a grain export deal between Ukraine and Russia
- The hopeful sign of the global food crisis could be easing
- Ukraine’s Zelenskiy sees potential to win the battlefield
July 22 (Reuters) – Russia and Ukraine will sign a deal on Friday to reopen Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for grain exports, Turkey said, raising hopes that an international food crisis caused by the invasion of Russia
Ukraine and Russia, both among the world’s biggest food exporters, did not immediately confirm Thursday’s announcement by the Turkish presidency’s office. But in a video address late last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hinted that his country’s Black Sea ports could be unblocked soon.
The blockade of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has reduced supplies to markets around the world and pushed up grain prices since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into neighboring Ukraine on 24 February.
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Full details of the deal were not immediately released. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was on his way to Turkey, a UN spokesman said. The deal was due to be signed at 1330 GMT on Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s office said. Read more
Zelenskiy, whose speech focused mainly on the potential of Ukrainian forces to make gains on the battlefield, said: “And tomorrow we also expect news for our state of Turkey, regarding the unblocking of our ports.” .
SANCTIONS
Moscow has denied responsibility for worsening the food crisis, blaming instead a chilling effect of Western sanctions for curbing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for exploiting its Black Sea ports.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington would focus on holding Moscow accountable for carrying out the deal.
The United Nations and Turkey have been working for two months to negotiate what Guterres called a “package deal” — resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports and facilitating shipments of Russian grain and fertilizer.
Russia said on Thursday that the European Union’s latest round of sanctions would have “devastating consequences” for security and parts of the global economy.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the 27-nation bloc proposed easing some previous sanctions in an attempt to safeguard global food security, and Moscow hoped that would create conditions for the unobstructed export of cereals and fertilizers.
BATTLE FIELD
Zelenskiy met with senior commanders on Thursday to discuss arms supplies and stepping up attacks against the Russians. Read more
“We agree that our forces have a strong potential to advance on the battlefield and inflict new heavy losses on the occupiers,” Zelenskiy said in his video address.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stepping up missile attacks on cities in recent weeks to terrorize its population. Moscow denies attacking civilians and says all its targets are military.
Kyiv hopes that Western weapons, especially longer-range missiles such as the US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), will allow it to strike back and regain territory lost during the invasion.
There have been no major advances on the front since Russian forces seized the last two Ukrainian-held towns in eastern Luhansk province in battles in late June and early July. Russian forces are also concentrated in neighboring Donetsk province.
Russia aims to fully capture Donetsk and Luhansk on behalf of its separatist proxies.
Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian-held eastern city of Donetsk on Friday morning, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Ukrainian troops had also destroyed bridges before withdrawing from Lysychansk, which is now preventing food deliveries, the city’s acting mayor, Andrey Skory, told TASS.
Russia claimed control of the southern port city of Mariupol two months ago after a brutal battle that killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
Those left behind now face a new battle: how to survive without water supplies or functioning sewage in the city where about 90% of the buildings were destroyed, and where garbage and human remains could among the rubble under the summer heat.
“You light a fire, cook food, breakfast for the children,” one resident told Reuters. “In the afternoon you go to look for work or to look for your dry ration for the children’s dinner. It’s groundhog day, as they say: you wake up and it’s always the same.”
Russia called its invasion a “special military operation” to liberate Ukraine from fascists, a claim the Ukrainian government and its Western allies said was a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.
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Reuters bureau reports; writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates
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