The Government of kyiv considers that the grain corridor through the Black Sea, whose agreement expires next week and which has made it possible to export 10.1 million metric tons of grain and other food products in three months, should be renewed not only for own benefit.
It must also do so so that the world can combat the food crisis and curb the rise in the prices of basic products.
This was explained by the head of the Ukrainian ports, Yuri Vaskov, 42 years old and Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, in an interview with EL PAÍS held on Friday in kyiv.
The war is a blow to one of the world's granaries, which has lost up to a third of its capacity and where, beyond the departure of ships, the sowing, cultivation and storage of cereals are directly threatened by the Russian invasion.
Despite the fact that Moscow has sown doubts, Vaskov is moderately optimistic about the renewal of the agreement.
At the same time, he accuses Russia of hindering the proper functioning of this maritime corridor.
Russia, for its part, considers that the October 29 attack on its fleet off the occupied Crimean peninsula, of which it accuses kyiv and London, violated the agreement.
That is why he abandoned it for four days, relying on what the Ukrainian deputy minister describes as “stupid arguments” since the war and this humanitarian pact are taking place “in parallel”.
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To protect its coasts from the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian army planted the sea with mines and it is now through these waters that the corridor through which freighters navigate has been delimited.
At the gates of the deadline to renew it, after 120 days in force since July 22, the kyiv authorities have already proposed some changes that they want to introduce.
The requests are basically three.
First, that the number of teams be increased —from the current four or five to a dozen— that carry out inspections of ships in international waters so that, in this way, more can be done every day.
Second, that the inspections of the freighters that set sail from the coast of Ukraine with the cereal be canceled and that only those that arrive empty be maintained to ensure that they do not bring weapons or prohibited merchandise.
Vaskov insists that more than 800 inspections (half in and half out) have found "nothing" illegal.
And third, that the port of Mikolaiv joins the other three (Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi) that are part of the initiative in order to increase export capacity.
Mikolaiv was not included in the July signing, according to the senior Ukrainian official,
The Executive led by President Volodímir Zelenski considers that these changes are necessary for the better functioning of the agreement and these days is trying to enforce them during the contacts with different gangs to renew this humanitarian corridor.
On July 22, the United Nations and Turkey sponsored the signing in Istanbul of a pact with Ukraine and Russia that ended the blockade of grain exports through the Black Sea.
That commercial activity ceased when Kremlin troops invaded the former Soviet republic on February 24.
Since August 1, the day the first ship left, until November 1, it has been possible to export 10.1 million metric tons of the 22 million that had been blocked, according to data from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN (OCHA).
Yuri Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine and head of ports, during his interview with EL PAÍS. Luis de Vega
But the agreement is experiencing delicate moments these days after Moscow temporarily abandoned it.
Vaskov does not see in any case that the pact is in danger, although he points out that Russia did not make it easy even before the incident in Crimea.
He assures that on Friday the 28th, the day before the attack, up to 200 cargo ships were waiting at sea to enter or leave Ukraine due to the impossibility of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC), which is made up of the four parties, of carry out inspections for Russian “obstructions”.
In the days that Moscow was absent, he assures, "the Turks and the UN" continued the inspections.
“The first day they carried out 46 and the second, 39. They showed that it is absolutely possible to inspect 40 a day without any problem”, defends the deputy minister.
Vaskov estimates that, if the corridor inspections were carried out at a normal rate, Ukraine could export from these three ports about six million tons each month, which, according to his calculations, instead of 10.1 million, could have loaded 18 between August and October.
That is why they request a dozen teams that are capable of controlling about 60 boats each day (30 out and 30 in).
Currently, he adds, between four and five groups of eight people each work (two Russians, two Ukrainians, two Turks and two from the UN).
The Government of Ukraine denounces, in turn, that "hundreds of thousands of tons" of cereals are being stolen in the areas occupied by the Russians and exported illegally, according to the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.
The main destination of this trade is Syria, followed by Turkey, says Vaskov, who says he does not have specific data on the losses that this entails.
The Russian authorities collaborate with private companies to access the international market with false documentation that hides the origin of the merchandise, according to an investigation by the
Financial Times
newspaper .
kyiv, Yuri Vaskov points out, has written several letters to the UN denouncing what they consider Moscow's breaches.
He lists three bombings carried out on its ports, the breach of the safety distance of 10 miles around freighters fifteen times, as well as the passage of Russian missiles with which they attack Ukraine over the airspace of the corridor. humanitarian.
Russia left the agreement after its military fleet was attacked off the coast of Crimea on Saturday, October 29, but ended up backing down on Wednesday, November 2.
As a result of the instability generated in the market, on Monday, October 31, wheat increased in price by 7.7%.
Moscow accused Ukraine and Great Britain of an action carried out at dawn with drones.
The attack took place about 200 kilometers from the humanitarian corridor and at night, when it does not operate, defends Vaskov, to insist that the war is taking place in one place and this agreement, in another.
The Kremlin, for its part, said that the Black Sea pact had been violated and even warned of the "danger" of continuing activity in those waters.
Up to 22 million kilos of cereal were left by the war without being able to go to the international market in a country that is considered one of the world's granaries.
Ukraine leads the world export of sunflower oil and is in the top five for wheat and corn.
60% of the exports that set sail from the Black Sea are destined for Africa and Asia.
In many cases they are countries hit by the food crisis, which has been aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
The other 40% arrives in Europe, although this is not always the final destination of the merchandise.
This is the case of Spain, the main country to which the grain that is exported these days through the humanitarian corridor arrives.
Fifty ships have arrived at Spanish ports loaded with 1.9 million metric tons of the almost 500 that have transported the total of 10,
Before the Russian invasion, the percentage of Ukrainian grain that was exported through the Black Sea was 85%, while the remaining 15% left essentially through the western border in trucks or trains, Vaskov details.
The war and the blockade of the ports in the first months of the invasion forced Ukraine to look for new solutions, such as carrying out improvements in the three ports on the Danube River, as well as boosting exports by land.
In this way, the cereal that now leaves by sea accounts for 65% and that which leaves by land 35%, says the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.
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