Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday during a telephone conversation with the Chancellor of Austria accused Ukraine of “sabotaging” the negotiation process between the two countries. The Kremlin statement said Putin briefed Chancellor Karl Nehammer on the measures Russia is taking to ensure the safe passage of ships from the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Putin considered that it was “unreasonable” to hold Russia responsible for disrupting the world’s grain supplies due to the military campaign it is waging in Ukraine.
And he emphasized during a conversation with Neuhamer that attempts to accuse Russia of difficulties with the delivery of agricultural products to world markets are groundless. The President of Russia again called the cause of the food crisis “US and European sanctions against Russia.”
On Tuesday, Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Russia was ready to make a major contribution to overcoming the food crisis through grain and fertilizer exports if the West lifted politically motivated restrictions.
Production in Ukraine, a major exporter of wheat and corn, has stalled due to the fighting.
For its part, Russia, which is also a major grain exporter, is reluctant to sell its products and fertilizers due to Western sanctions affecting the financial and logistics sectors. The two countries produce a third of the world’s wheat.
The conflict has upset the global food balance and raised fears of a dangerous crisis affecting particularly poor countries.
On the other hand, during a telephone conversation, Putin urged the Ukrainians to “remove mines from ports as soon as possible to let the stuck ships through.”
Director of the Russian National Defense Control Center Mikhail Mezintsev, citing RIA Novosti, said that Russian troops daily open two sea corridors so that ships can leave the ports of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Evgenia on the Black Sea coast.
“The Russian armed forces open two humanitarian maritime corridors daily from 8 am to 7 pm Moscow time,” he said. On Wednesday, Moscow announced that the Mariupol port had resumed operations after it had been cleared of mines, a month after Russia claimed control of the strategic city.
For his part, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that President Putin had told him that Moscow would honor its natural gas obligations and was ready to discuss a prisoner exchange with Ukraine.
Asked about what Putin said about gas supplies, Nehamer said: “He also touched on the issue and said that all deliveries would be made in full.”
In a separate statement, the Kremlin said Russia had confirmed its intention to fulfill its obligations to supply natural gas to Austria, which receives 80 percent of its gas from Russia.
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of stalling peace talks between the two countries, saying it’s not clear what Kyiv wants. “The Ukrainian leadership is constantly making contradictory statements, and this does not allow us to fully understand what the Ukrainian side wants,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The last known direct peace talks between the two sides took place on 29 March. Remote communication continued for some time, but now both sides say they have stopped.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of waging a “total war” against his country, expecting it to last “for a long time.”
“The West has declared total war on us, on the entire Russian world,” Lavrov said at a meeting with Russian regional authorities.
At a time when Western powers tightened sanctions on Moscow in response to Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, Lavrov said “it’s safe to say that this situation will haunt us for a long time to come.”
