Putin doesn't give in. L'Agreement on Ukrainian Wheat it is possible but under one condition: “If the West lifts the sanctions”. Highly improbable hypothesis. The expected meeting between the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin – which lasted three hours – concluded with no big announcement or signing, but with the usual blackmail and passing the buck. Despite this, for the head of the Kremlin "the meeting was a success". While Erdogan relaunches himself as a super mediator: "Turkey is ready to do its part so that Russia and Ukraine have direct negotiations", said the Turkish leader during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart. "Of course, Ukraine needs to soften its approach in order to take steps together with Russia," he added.
After being exit from the wheat deal last July, putting the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea into serious difficulties, Moscow continues to bomb Ukrainian ports and then look elsewhere. Moscow, in fact, considers the agreements reached with Turkey and Qatar as "an alternative" to the agreement on the export of grain, Putin said during the joint press conference in Sochi. He then added: "We are close to an agreement with 6 African countries to which we will provide free foodstuffs and also the logistics of supplies", specifying that it is not, however, a replacement agreement.
Wheat: Moscow could rejoin the agreement
Putin declared that Russia "will consider the possibility of re-entering the wheat agreement when Western countries respect their commitments". Moscow withdrew from the deal in July, complaining that sending its agricultural products and fertilizers to international markets was hampered by Western sanctions imposed after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "The halt to the agreement on the export of wheat", underlined the Russian leader, "has not had an impact on the international market, prices continue to fall".
But what are the commitments made by the West to which Putin refers? Among other things, the connection of the Russian agricultural bank to Swift (the EU cut it off in June 2022), the supply of spare parts for agricultural machinery, the unblocking of transport and insurance logistics, the reactivation of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and the unfreezing of the assets of some Russian companies. All commitments that according to the head of the Kremlin have not been respected.
War in Ukraine, Kiev: Russian drones explode in Romania. Bucharest denies
Ahead of talks with Erdogan, Ukrainian officials said Moscow would launch a night airstrike against a major Ukrainian grain export port. Romania immediately denied the news. But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says Kiev is in possession of "photographic evidence".
Instead as regards the Ukrainian counteroffensive it is just a “failure” according to Putin. His words a few days after those of the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and of the high Ukrainian military hierarchies, which had instead claimed the success of the Ukrainian forces in recovering portions of territory occupied by the Kremlin. Regarding the latest initiatives to favor a peace process, Putin limited himself to saying that these have not been discussed with Moscow and therefore "we do not perceive anything new". In all this, Zelensky has appointed the very faithful Rustem Umerov new defense minister, after having fired Oleksiy Reznikov accused of corruption.
