Russia is trying to “blackmail” the international community with an offer to unblock Ukrainian seaports if sanctions against the country are eased, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
This is “clear blackmail,” Kuleba claimed. “You can’t find a better example of blackmail in international relations.”
He warned that if Russia does not lift the blockade on Ukrainian crop exports, the entire agricultural cycle will be interrupted and could trigger a “multi-year food crisis”.
Some background: Before the war, Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest exporter of corn and the fifth largest exporter of wheat, according to the US State Department. Nearly 30% of world wheat trade came from Russia and Ukraine alone.
During a panel discussion, Kuleba said that Russia and Ukraine are nowhere near the possibility of negotiated peace and that Moscow has no intention of participating in discussions aimed at ending the war.
“When you run an operation like this, you’re basically saying no to negotiations. If Russia had preferred talks to war, they would have behaved differently,” he said.
Making concessions to Russia hasn’t worked since 2014 and won’t work now, Kuleba said.
“This strategy has been used by the leading global armed forces from 2014 to February 24, 2022. Make concessions here, make concessions here, it will help prevent war. It failed. Eight years of this strategy has resulted in missiles hitting Kiev and bloodshed in Donbas,” the foreign minister said.
Kuleba again called for further sanctions against Russia, namely to stop buying Russian oil, which he says will keep Moscow in a comfortable position.
“Ukraine is suffering more than Russia from the sanctions against it. … After three months of war, my message is simple: stop Russian exports. Stop buying from Russia and let them earn money to invest in the war machine to kill and destroy,” he said.
