“European leaders are stepping up diplomatic efforts to loosen the Russian stranglehold on Ukraine’s grain exports, as prospects [d’une victoire] of Kyiv in the eastern region of Donbass darkens and the risk of a global food crisis increases”see the Financial Times. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Russian offensive in Ukraine and grain export with Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation on Saturday (28 May).
During the 80-minute call, the Russian president told the two Western leaders that he was ready to find ways to unblock grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and that he could increase his own fertilizer exports. and agricultural products if the corresponding Western sanctions were lifted. Remarks “which look more like a bargain than an unconditional promise”comments Politico Europe.
Franco-German pressure for the reopening of the port of Odessa “comes a few weeks after the European Commissioner for Agriculture proposed ‘alternative routes’ to ship grain through Polish ports on the Baltic Sea and rejected the idea of setting up humanitarian corridors to export food from the Black Sea”retrace Politico Europe.
Before the war, remember Politico EuropeUkraine could export “about 5 million tons of grain and up to 700,000 tons of sunflower oil per month” through the Black Sea. In April, on the other hand, Ukraine “succeeded in exporting less than one million tons of grain”.
Russia “open” to dialogue with Ukraine
Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron “insisted on an immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops” and have “called on the Russian President for serious direct negotiations with the Ukrainian President and a diplomatic solution to the conflict”according to the chancellery.
Vladimir Putin told his German and French counterparts that Russia remains “open to a resumption of dialogue” with kyiv to settle the armed conflict, but that the West’s supply of arms to Ukraine could exacerbate the crisis .
Friday, pick it up Wall Street JournalU.S. officials had indicated that the Biden administration was likely to approve the transfer to Ukraine of advanced long-range rocket systems, which the Kyiv government deems necessary to halt Russian advances in the Donbas region of Ukraine. east of the country, where fighting is intense.
Finally, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz asked Vladimir Putin to release 2,500 Ukrainian fighters who had taken refuge in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol (south) and were taken prisoner by the Russians, according to the French presidency.