The international community has been asked to do more to safeguard the wheat shipping route that is used to export food by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy declared late on Tuesday that the corridor required “permanent and long-term defense,” even as ships proceeded to depart Ukrainian ports as a result of an arrangement that Turkey and the UN mediated ensure the safe transit of grain and fertilizer shipments.
On social media, Zelenskyy made a statement late at night “Russia must clearly be made aware that it will receive a tough response from the world to any steps to disrupt our food exports.”
“At issue here clearly are the lives of tens of millions of people.”
Before Moscow suspended its engagement due to a drone strike in seized Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would think about rejoining the historic accord in exchange for assurances from Kyiv.
Moscow announced on Saturday that it would withdraw from the agreement after charging Kyiv of orchestrating a “terrorist” attack on Russian ships with the help of “specialists” from the United Kingdom.
While London referred to Moscow’s allegation as an “invented story,” Kyiv has neither denied nor taken responsibility for the strike.
As a response to the attack on its Black Sea Fleet, Russia launched missiles toward Ukrainian cities on Monday, notably Kyiv, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Washington denounced the missile attacks and charged Moscow with “exacerbating human suffering” by focusing on water and energy infrastructure.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has exacerbated the global food scarcity and cost of living problem, sparking a frenzy of diplomatic efforts to control rising prices and prevent famine in emerging economies.
The agreement, which was negotiated in July and intends to return exports to prewar levels of 5 million tonnes per month, has already resulted in the shipment of more than 9.5 million tonnes of grains and related products.
On Tuesday, Oleksandr Kubrakov, the minister of infrastructure for Ukraine, stated that eight laden ships were anticipated to pass via the corridor on Thursday.
