The issue of grain export from Ukrainian ports was resolved at the highest international level with the participation of the United Nations: today the "grain corridor" was fully operational, and the first ship from Odesa has already reached Turkey. But questions about the nuances of the negotiations and the undisclosed details of the agreement remained open.
We talked about how critical the issue of grain export is for Ukraine with the head of the Odesa city organization "Batkivshchyna", doctor of technical sciences and professor Mykhailo Pozhivanov.
"Before the agreement was reached to unblock the seaports in the south of the country, grain was and continues to be exported by road through our western borders, as well as through the river port on the Danube. At the same time, the delivery of grain to the Odesa port from the northern and central regions in terms of distance and transportation costs is approximately equal to its delivery to the western border of Ukraine," said Mykhailo Pozhivanov.
In his opinion, there are still questions regarding the ownership of the exported grain:
"First of all, we still do not know at what price and whose grain is exported by ships - state or private, Ukrainian farmers or foreign companies. After all, if this grain is state-owned, and it is critically important for the country to sell it now, that is one thing. And if this grain is private and not even owned by Ukrainian companies, but by foreign grain traders, then why does the state solve their problems by going to negotiations with Russia? We have a war, and the main issue for the country is not the export of grain, but the liberation of Ukraine.
This initiative, in my opinion, changed the entire concept of war. Our cities are bombed every day, Ukrainians are killed, millions of people have gone abroad or left their homes, and the authorities are negotiating with the enemy to export grain. I believe that the authorities should openly explain their actions to Ukrainians - what are these negotiations for, whose grain is this, how much will the state earn from it, and how critical are these funds for the budget.
Even if the state earns several billion dollars from this, how much will we lose? Daily rocket attacks on cities and their destruction are calculated at these or even higher amounts. And the lost human lives cannot be replaced...".
In addition, the politician notes the strange position of foreign partners in this situation:
"If this is part of some cunning plan regarding Russia, then all questions are removed. But so far I do not see it: on the contrary, we observe that after the Istanbul negotiations some sanctions were even lifted from the Russian Federation.
Plus, the UN representatives who lobbied for this process did not say anything specific about the final beneficiaries and owners of the exported grain. If the UN is so concerned about food stability in the world, why didn't they themselves buy this grain from Ukraine? As a result, we now do not know not only who sells it, but also who buys our grain. And the interest and active role of Turkey in the negotiation process is explained simply - most of the Ukrainian grain has always been purchased by the Turks, because their processing is very dependent on our grain. But again, we are talking about the interests of another state, not our own," the politician emphasized, stressing that the negotiation process was completely opaque and left more questions than answers.
By the way, a caravan with 57 tons of corn left the ports of Odesa today. But he did not go to hungry Africa, but to Ireland, Britain and Turkey. Thus, there are only more questions.
