Russia only admitted on Sunday that it had struck the port of Odessa. Ukraine’s new grain harvest is plentiful, but in a war situation, grain exports to the world may take more than two years, a Ukrainian official estimates.
16:00•Updated 16:09
According to Ukraine, it aims to start transporting grain from the port of Odessa to the world despite the Russian missile strikes.
Chairman of the Association of Farmers of Ukraine Oleksandr Chubuk is not convinced by the UN agreements signed by Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.
– How can Turkey and the UN sign an agreement with a country that does not comply with them? Chubuk states in an interview with the news agency Reuters.
There is already a shortage of facilities for grain storage when old grain is sitting in silos, Chubuk says. According to Chubuk, the situation has led to farmers having to sell the new crop at the market price, unless they have the opportunity to store the grain themselves.
Along with Chubuk, an adviser to the President of Ukraine Oleh Ustenko has brought out the tons of grain standing in the silos.
The harvest is currently being harvested, for example, in the Zaporizhia region in the eastern parts of Ukraine. Ustenko estimates that in total the new crop will produce around 40 million tons of grain. It has already been estimated that 20 million tons of grain are lying in the silos.
Russia first denied the attacks
Odessa is Ukraine’s most important grain port. According to Ukraine, the missile strikes were aimed specifically at the part of the port where grain is processed.
Russia admitted the attacks on the port area of Odessa only on Sunday. As late as Saturday, Russia announced through Turkey that it had nothing to do with the attacks.
According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the missile fired into the port of Odessa was aimed at destroying military infrastructure. The country’s Ministry of Defense says that it managed to destroy at least one Ukrainian warship in the Black Sea.
According to the Ukrainian military, the port of Odessa was not damaged in the attack.
In the video images in the port area provided by the country’s army, you can see, among other things, how firefighters put out fires in the port area.
The news agency Reuters, which published the video, has not checked with independent sources where the video was filmed.
The war slowed grain exports significantly
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has already been reflected in different parts of the world for months.
Consumer prices have risen significantly, and the global food crisis has deepened.
For example, the UN development program UNDP estimated in early July that the situation has driven tens of millions of people into poverty. According to UNDP, the effects of the situation are already clearly visible in sub-Saharan Africa, for example.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov currently visiting Africa. The continent is largely dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain.
Although there are millions of tons of grain in Ukraine’s silos, it will not help the world’s hungry as long as the grain cannot be transported from the Black Sea.
Oleh Ustenko, adviser to the President of Ukraine, estimates that under normal conditions, it would take almost a year to transport both old and new grain around the world through Black Sea ports. Because of the war, exports have slowed down.
If the operations of the ports can be secured, it could take about two years to transport the grain, Ustenko estimates.