Ukraine will re-launch grain exports no matter what Russia does, Budanov says
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Ukraine will export grain in spite of Russian attacks on Ukrainian port and agricultural infrastructure, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with Bulgaria’s bTV news channel on Aug. 5.
"(Russian) attacks on portinfrastructure and grain terminals of Ukraine are more evidence of Russian
crimes against humanity," Budanov said, when asked about Ukraine's plans following the termination of the grain
deal by Russia.
It is mostly poor countries in Africa and Asia, which rely on supplies of cheap foodstuffs
from Ukraine, that are affected by from fall in Ukrainian grain
exports, Budanov said.
"Ukraine is taking measures
in order to restore the volume of its agri-exports," the intelligence chief said, claiming
that Ukraine will export grain and other food – whether Russia likes it or not.
Russia's withdrawal from the
grain initiative
Russia officially announced the
termination of the grain deal on the pretext of repeated attacks on the
illegally built Crimea Bridge.
However, Ukraine noted on April 27, almost
three months before the latest attack on the Crimean Bridge on July 17, that
Russia was effectively sabotaging the deal by refusing to carry out inspections
of ships, as had been agreed under the initiative. This lead to a backlog of
unloaded ships building up.
Russia said it was unhappy with the conditions
of the deal, and demanded that its state agricultural bank be allowed to use
the SWIFT interbank transfer system again. The UN proposed that U.S. bank or a
specially created subsidiary bank be set up to allow payments on agricultural
exports by Russia to be made, but the Kremlin refused to accept this
compromise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy then offered
to extend the grain deal with the UN and Turkey, but without Russian
participation.
The grain green corridor
mediated by the UN and Turkey had
allowed Ukraine to export grain from three of its Black Sea ports starting from Aug. 1, 2022.
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