Turkey on Monday said it was committed to ensuring grain will keep shipping out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports despite Moscow saying it would suspend its participation in the export deal.
“Even if Russia behaves hesitantly because it didn’t receive the same benefits, we will continue decisively our efforts to serve humanity,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to Al Jazeera.
The grain deal was brokered by the UN and Turkey and is overseen at a coordination center in Istanbul. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, on Monday and said Moscow should rejoin the agreement.
Moscow said over the weekend that it was suspending the grain deal in response to a drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the drones launched the attack after traveling through safe corridors that were established under the deal for the shipment of grain.
Ukraine and the US have been quiet about the drone attack. Ukrainian officials haven’t taken responsibility, and a Pentagon official only acknowledged that there were explosions near Russian vessels in Sevastopol.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Moscow was only suspending its participation in the grain deal, not ending it altogether. “We are not saying that we are ceasing our participation in this operation. No, we are saying that we are suspending it,” he said.
Ships packed with grain still left Ukraine on Monday despite Russia’s suspension of the deal. According to Ukrainian officials, 12 ships departed Ukraine carrying a total of 354,500 tonnes of grain, the most shipped in a single day since the deal was signed in July.
Russia said Monday that it can’t guarantee security for the ships departing Ukraine while it’s not participating in the deal. “Under the current conditions, there can be no question of guaranteeing the security of any object in the indicated direction until the Ukrainian side accepts additional obligations not to use this route for military purposes,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The profit making possibilities are endless!
“Turkey Vows to Keep Ukraine Grain Moving After Russia Suspends Deal Twelve ships carrying grain left Ukraine’s ports on Monday despite Russia’s suspension of deal”
The last ever ships leave Ukraine!
“Turkey Vows to Keep Ukraine Grain Moving After Russia Suspends Deal Twelve ships carrying grain left Ukraine’s ports on Monday despite Russia’s suspension of deal”
The last ever ships leave Ukraine!
Shows once again how Washington and its puppets are “agreement incapable”.
You have to sift through lots of manure and Russia bashing to find out why Russia suspended its participation in the “humanitarian” grain deal. In the MSM, it’s usually hidden beyond the middle of the article and after advertisements just about the time you think the article is coming to an end. It usually comes with the annoying “Russia’s MOD claims and Ukraine denies.” Antiwar displayed the same before the middle of the article. …I guess that’s a good job by antiwar?
I read yesterday that Russia was still sending grain to “poor” nations. Russia has sent over 500,000 tons of grain. Russia said that something like 3% of the grain sent got to poor nations. So, there will be direct shipments.
Turkey can’t break an actual blockade, and won’t try to confront Russia on it.
This is hype.
If the poor of the world were ever the issue, then Russian grain would have shipped out too (twice as much) and the shipping corridor would not have been exploited to enable attacks by unmanned vehicles.