Putin accuses West over expired grain deal

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Western countries of perverting the expired Black Sea grain deal for their own ends, but said Russia would immediately return to the agreement if all its conditions were met.

On Monday, Russia refused to extend a deal brokered last year by the United Nations and Turkey to allow Ukraine to ship grain from Odesa, under which almost 33 million tonnes of food reached world markets. Moscow said parts of the agreement to boost its own exports had not been implemented, and warned that any bid to continue grain exports from southern Ukraine would not have its security guarantees.

“Initially, the essence, the meaning of the grain deal has a colossal humanitarian significance,” Mr Putin said.

“The West has completely emasculated and perverted this essence, and instead of helping countries in real need, the West used the grain deal for political blackmail, and in addition ... made it a tool for enriching transnational corporations, speculators in the global grain market.”

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He restated Moscow’s position that it would return to the deal as soon as the West met its five key demands, which Putin enumerated: readmission of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the Swift payment system; resumption of exports of agricultural machinery and spare parts to Russia; removal of restrictions on insurance and access to ports for Russian ships and cargo; reinstatement of a now-damaged ammonia export pipeline from Russia’s Togliatti to Odesa in Ukraine; the unblocking of accounts and financial activities of Russian fertiliser companies.

Earlier, Mr Putin’s defence ministry said Moscow would now consider all vessels heading to Ukrainian ports as potential carriers of military cargoes.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Russia launched another heavy missile and drone strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine, in what Kyiv called an attempt to prevent any resumption of grain exports.

Ukraine said Russia fired 63 missiles and explosive “Shahed” drones at the country, 37 of which were shot down. Odesa was the main target, a day after it was also hit by a Russian air strike along with the nearby port of Mykolaiv.

“The Russian terrorists deliberately targeted the infrastructure of the grain deal, and every Russian missile is a blow not only to Ukraine but also to everyone in the world who seeks a normal and safe life,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after talks with senior military officers and government ministers.

“The military was ordered to strengthen the protection of people and of port infrastructure, and the foreign ministry was told to intensify contacts with partners to increase pressure on the terrorist state and continue normal exports of Ukrainian grain,” he added.

Later, after talks in Kyiv with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Zelenskiy said he hoped Ukraine would be supplied with more units of two advanced air defence systems that could protect Odesa from such attacks: the Patriot system that Ukraine has received from the United States and Germany, and the SAMP/T system from Italy and France.

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Ukrainian officials said Wednesday’s attack damaged grain and vegetable oil terminals in the Odesa port area and also an industrial facility, warehouses, shopping centres and several residential buildings elsewhere in the city and region, injuring 10 civilians.

“One of the most terrifying nights … We do not recall an attack of such a size since the start of the full-scale invasion,” said Odesa mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, referring to an all-out war launched by Russia in February 2022 which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces “launched a group strike with high-precision sea and air-based weapons on military industry facilities, fuel infrastructure and ammunition depots of the armed forces of Ukraine near the city of Odesa … All assigned objects were hit. The aim of the strike was achieved.”

Russian-installed officials in occupied Crimea ordered more than 2,000 people to evacuate their homes on Wednesday due to a large fire and explosions at a military base and ammunition depot. The unexplained blaze erupted two days after the main bridge between Russia and Crimea was damaged in what Moscow called a Ukrainian attack using marine drones. - Additional reporting: Reuters

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