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The Kremlin warns of “risks” in the event of a new pact in which Moscow does not participate
July 18 () –
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, the end of the grain export agreement from Ukrainian ports one day during a telephone conversation.
Both have talked about the situation around the end of the pact and the repercussions for the area in the near future and in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to information from the Turkish Foreign Ministry to the newspaper ‘Cumhuriyet’.
Before speaking with Lavrov, Fidan also held a conversation with the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to analyze the situation now that the security guarantees in the northwest of the Black Sea established thanks to the agreement have been revoked.
The Russian authorities, for their part, have warned of the risks that putting the pact back into operation “without Russia’s approval” could entail, given the lack of “security guarantees” from Moscow.
Moscow has regretted on several occasions that the Ukrainian Army is using the corridor for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports for “military purposes” and has stressed that this route “passes near the zone of contention.”
The Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, has stated that “in the event of formalizing an agreement without Russia, certain risks must be taken into account.” “We cannot say how many or which countries are willing to take these risks,” he clarified, according to information from the Interfax news agency.
“This is not the fault of Guterres and the UN. In this case, we could say that European states should feel ashamed,” Peskov said, commenting on statements such as those of the United States, whose Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has called ” shame” the end of the agreement on the part of Russia for not fulfilling the demands raised.
