New Delhi: US President Joe Biden said it was “purely outrageous” that Russia suspended a United Nations-brokered Black Sea grain deal on Saturday. This comes after, Russia accused Ukraine of a major attack on Saturday on its fleet in Crimea.
While speaking to reporters on Saturday, Biden said there is “no reason for them to do that”, news agency AFP reported.
“There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it,” Biden said, according to Reuters. The deal had been heralded as critical to easing the global food crisis caused by the conflict.
Russia Accuses Ukraine Of Executing Sevastopol Attack, Alleges British Assistance
Russian army claimed that Ukraine “destroyed” nine aerial drones and seven maritime ones, in an attack in Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea early Saturday. Sevastopol has been targeted several times in recent months, it serves as the headquarters for the fleet and a logistical hub for operations in Ukraine.
Moscow’s forces alleged British “specialists,” whom they said were based in the southern Ukrainian city of Ochakiv, had helped prepare and train Kyiv to carry out the strike, a claim which Britain has bluntly rejected.
Moscow further claimed that the same British unit was involved in explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month. As per AFP, Britain strongly rejected these allegations, saying “the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale.”
According to AFP, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said that the drone attack was the “most massive” the peninsula had seen. He said that city services were on alert though he claimed that no civilian infrastructure had been damaged. He called the residents to post videos of the incident on social media.
“It should be clear to everyone that such information is much needed for Ukrainian Nazis in order to understand how the defence of our city is built,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.
Russia told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a letter, that it was suspending the deal for an “indefinite term” because it could not “guarantee the safety of civilian ships”.
Black Sea Grain Deal
The Black Sea grain deal allows shipments of grains from Ukraine, the world’s largest exporter, which was halted by the Russian invasion. Turkey and UN brokered the deal to unlock grain exports signed between Russia and Ukraine in July, it’s critical to easing the global food crisis caused by the conflict.
The agreement already allowed more than nine million tons of Ukrainian grain to be exported and was due to be renewed on November 19.
According to AFP, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general said, “It is vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative which is a critical humanitarian effort.”
Meanwhile, the White House said Russia was “weaponizing food” with the suspension. “Russia is again trying to use the war it started as a pretext for weaponizing food, directly impacting nations in need and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement, as quoted by AFP.
Reuters reported Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev as saying that Russia was ready to supply 500,000 tonnes of grains to the poor countries in the next four months replacing the Ukrainian grain with the assistance of Turkey.
(With agency inputs)