Turkey’s mediation plan amid the global food crisis to open ship corridors from Ukrainian ports has come under fire as Kyiv officials say it will take six months to clear the coast of Russian and Ukrainian mines.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement on Tuesday that his government was making progress with the UN, Russia and Ukraine in reopening ports under Russian blockade of the Black Sea. According to the plan, ships leaving Ukrainian ports will be safely secured by Turkish naval ships.
Development seems to be giving some hope, as the United Nations has warned that the war in Ukraine, a major grain exporter, is fueling crippling food shortages around the world and pushing millions to starve. However, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said that even if Russia lifted its blockade, thousands of mines would remain floating near the port of Odessa and elsewhere.
Vysotsky said Ukraine was able to export a maximum of 2 million tonnes of grain a month – compared to 6 million tonnes before the war – and that it would take until the end of the year to clear the mines.
“I think we have reached the limit,” Vysotsky told a conference at the International Grains Council. “The largest amount we can export is about 2 million tons per month.
It is estimated that more than 20 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukrainian silos. The country faces severe capacity constraints as it tries to export grain by road, river and rail.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that it was the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to clear coastal waters of mines to allow exports to resume. “This will allow ships, after being inspected by our military, to make sure they are not carrying weapons, to enter ports, to load grain and, with our help, to proceed to international waters,” he said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Russian-occupied ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol have already resumed operations. “The demining of the port of Mariupol is over,” Shoigu said during a speech on Russian television. “It was operating normally and got its first cargo ships.”
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Russia’s allegations could not be independently verified, and at a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Monday night, European Council President Charles Michel accused Russia of using food supplies as an “invisible missile against developing countries.”
Michelle said Russian forces had stolen grain from the occupied Ukrainian territories “by shifting the blame on others”, calling the behavior “cowardly” and “propaganda, pure and simple”. His comments prompted Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia to leave.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Lithuania, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government was ready to increase its military presence in the Baltic region in response to the war in Ukraine. “We have agreed to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank by creating a new strong brigade here,” he said.
Lithuania borders Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave where the Kremlin’s Baltic Fleet is based. A brigade consists of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.
Scholz also promised to continue supplying the necessary weapons and training troops to Ukraine. He rejected claims that Germany was hesitant to supply heavy weapons, including most modern howitzers.
He said: “We now have far-reaching sanctions that will slow the Russian economy for decades. This means that it will not be able to participate in global economic and technological progress. We know from reports that this means that Russia will not even be able to maintain its military capacity at the same level.
Gitanas Nauseda, President of Lithuania, welcomed Scholz’s comments, saying that the Russian military threat “will remain a major source of threat to regional security.”
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