ANKARA, Turkey
Russia and Turkey voiced support Wednesday for a safe corridor in the Black Sea to allow Ukrainian grain exports, but Kyiv rejected the proposal, saying it was not credible. The European Union accused Moscow of “weaponizing” food supplies to gain an advantage in the war.
Russia also demanded Ukraine
remove mines from the Black Sea, and both Moscow and Ankara said the West
should ease sanctions on Moscow to allow the export of Russian grains amid an
escalating world food crisis. While food exports are technically exempt from
the sanctions, Russia claims that restrictions on its ships and banks make it
impossible to deliver its grain to global markets.
Ukraine is one of the world’s
largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia’s
invasion and a blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow,
endangering food supplies to many developing countries, especially in Africa.
Many of those ports are now also heavily mined.
Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu hosted his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Ankara on
Wednesday for discussions focused on a United Nations proposal to free Odesa
and Ukraine’s other Black Sea ports and allow 22 million tons of grain sitting
in silos to be shipped out. Ukraine was not invited to the talks.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres has been working on a package for weeks that would allow Ukraine to
export wheat and other commodities from Odesa and enable Russia to export grain
and fertilizer to global markets.
He told reporters Wednesday
the package is essential, especially for millions of people in developing
countries facing the threat of an unprecedented wave of hunger.
Guterres said saying anything
more in public about the talks would “jeopardize the chances of success.”
Russia and Turkey appear eager
to dictate the terms and cement further control over the Black Sea. Turkey has
maintained its close ties to both Ukraine and Russia. It has criticized
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but hasn’t joined the international sanctions
against Russia.
Russia has urged Ukraine to
remove mines from the area near Odesa to allow safe grain exports, and Russian
President Vladimir Putin pledged that Moscow wouldn’t use the corridors to
launch an attack. Both Ukrainian and EU officials cast doubt on the pledge; it
was Putin who also insisted earlier this year that he had no plans to invade
Ukraine.
But Lavrov said Wednesday that
Russia is ready to formalize the guarantee for Odesa. The Russian envoy
promised that Moscow would not “abuse” its naval advantage if the mines were
removed from Ukraine’s ports and would “take all necessary steps to ensure that
the ships can leave there freely.”
Turkey says it would
facilitate and protect the transport of the grain in the Black Sea. The Greek
government has also offered the country’s powerful shipping fleet for the task,
but Ankara has not made any mention about Athens being part of the possible deal.
The Turkish government has recently ramped up rhetoric against neighbors
including Greece and Cyprus over historical disputes.
Turkey has other vested
interests in helping to secure a deal: Ankara needs Moscow’s approval to
continue its presence in northern Syria, where it plans to launch a new
cross-border offensive against Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara views as a
security threat.
“Turkey really needs Russia’s
blessing in order to be able to carry on this operation,” said Merve Tahiroglu,
Turkey program coordinator at Project on Middle East Democracy. “I think
they’re really going to try to get that kind of a concession out of the Russian
side.”
Turkey also depends heavily on
Russian and Ukrainian wheat imports for its own food supplies and is eager to
burnish its reputation in Africa, which has been severely affected by the food
crisis, said Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti, a Milan-based research fellow at the
Italian Institute for International Political Studies.
Ankara “has been investing quite
a lot in its image in Africa as a benevolent country,” she said.
Russia, meanwhile, “is trying
to portray itself as a country willing to compromise, to reach a deal,” Tafuro
Ambrosetti added.
Lavrov’s meeting came as
Turkey — a NATO member — has voiced strong opposition to Sweden and Finland’s
recent bids to join the alliance. Moscow has also objected to the Nordic
countries’ candidacy — which analyst say may play a role in discussions
concerning Syria.
The head of Ukraine’s grain
traders group scoffed at Turkey’s effort to negotiate a deal.
“Turkey doesn’t have enough
power in the Black Sea to guarantee security of cargo and Ukrainian ports,”
Ukrainian Grain Union chief Serhiy Ivashchenko said Wednesday. He said it would
take three to four months to remove sea mines, and also alleged that it was
Russia that mined the area.
At a joint news conference
with Lavrov, Cavusoglu said Turkey considers the plan to be a “reasonable” and
“feasible” one, although he acknowledged that it would require negotiations
between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Turkish minister also
backed easing Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
European Union officials
emphatically pushed back Wednesday.
“Let’s be very clear,”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the European
Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “Our sanctions do not touch basic food
commodities. They do not affect the trading of grain or other food between
Russia and third countries. And the port embargo specifically has full
exemption on agricultural goods. So let’s stick to the truth. It’s Putin’s war
of aggression that fuels the food crisis and nothing else.”
At the European Parliament on
Wednesday, European Council President Charles Michel accused the Kremlin of
“weaponizing food supplies and surrounding their actions with a web of lies,
Soviet-style.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the creation of
a safe sea corridor last week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The
ministry also called for security guarantees, such as a supply of weapons to
defend against maritime threats and the participation of NATO ships in the
Black Sea.
Addressing the possibility of
resumed peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, Cavusoglu said Wednesday that
Turkey was “much more optimistic,” and he reiterated Ankara’s offer to oversee
a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin.
Lavrov said Russia was willing
to hold further talks but accused Zelenskyy of “changing his position all the
time” over conditions for a leaders’ summit.
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