Moscow-Sana
Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, affirmed that Kyiv is avoiding cooperation regarding the safe exit of ships from the Black Sea, noting that it continues to prevent 75 foreign ships from 17 countries from leaving its ports.
Russia Today website quoted Nebenzia as saying today at a meeting of the UN Security Council that "Ukraine, not Russia, continues to prevent 75 foreign ships from 17 countries in the ports of Nikolaev, Kherson, Chernomoresk, Mariupol, Uchakov, Odessa and Yuzhny from leaving."
Nebenzia described Western accusations against Russia of preventing the movement of commercial ships and banning wheat shipments from the Ukrainian ports as "disingenuous", pointing out that "there is still a danger to navigation and infrastructure from the Ukrainian mines that escaped from their anchorage along the coast of the Black Sea countries."
The Russian diplomat stressed that "Russia is taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of civilian navigation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov," noting that "Ukraine does not make such efforts."
And Nebenzia stated that "without a solution to this problem, it is not possible to talk about the possibility of exporting Ukrainian grain by sea."
With regard to the global food crisis, Nebenzia said that the crisis began long before the conflict in Ukraine, denying that Russia had a role in fueling it, pointing out that “the West’s speculation in food futures markets” caused the crisis.
The Russian diplomat indicated that Russia could offer 25 million tons of grain for export through the port of Novorossiysk from next August until the end of this year.
The diplomat also expressed Moscow’s suspicions that Ukrainian grain is being pumped to the granaries of European countries as a price for weapons obtained by Kyiv, explaining: “We have reasonable doubts that these grains will not meet the needs of the hungry south of the world, but are pumped to the granaries of European countries, and that In this way, Ukraine is paying the price for the weapons provided by the West.”
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