Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has hailed Russia’s U-turn to rejoin the UN-backed grain export deal as a “significant diplomatic outcome” that demonstrated “the failure of the Russian aggression”.
“Implementation of the grain export initiative will continue,” Zelenskiy said in his Wednesday evening address.
Russia initially said it would abandon the brokered deal that allowed grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea, following a drone attack on its warships in the port of Sevastopol. Russia’s defence ministry said it was satisfied it had received “sufficient” guarantees from Kyiv that it would not use the maritime corridor to carry out attacks.
Zelenskiy said the reversal showed “Russian blackmail has led nowhere”. After eight months of war “the Kremlin is saying that they demanded security guarantees from Ukraine”, he said. “Two hundred and fifty two days ago Russia demanded security guarantees from the United States of America.
“These are really striking changes. This shows both the failure of Russian aggression and how strong you and I are when we remain united.”
Russia’s threatened withdrawal had reignited fears over global hunger and high food prices that had been alleviated by the grain scheme earlier this year, which allowed cargo ships to move Ukrainian gain without fear of being targeted.
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of using the grain corridor to prepare attacks on Russia, including the bombing of the Kerch Bridge in Crimea last month, where the explosives used in the attack were allegedly shipped from Odesa.
The US welcomed the restoration of the deal and urged Russia to renew it later this month. The deal is set to expire on 19 November.
Russia’s decision to rejoin the UN grain corridor has been seen by Ukraine and its western allies as a humiliating U-turn. “Putin was once again humiliated … the Kremlin blackmailer once again made himself a laughing stock before the whole world and retreated,” Anton Gerashchenko, a senior presidential adviser to Zelenskiy, wrote over Telegram on Wednesday night.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will be seen as having successfully called the Russian bluff to blockade Ukrainian ports or even sink civilian cargo ships carrying grain abroad. The Turkish leader had said exports of grain from Ukraine would continue with or without Russian approval and appears to have brokered the Russian climbdown.
Russian attacks were reported across large areas of Ukraine on Thursday, with heavy shelling in numerous regions damaging infrastructure, including electricity supplies to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Ukrainian officials said. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has again been disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged the remaining high voltage lines, leaving it with just diesel generators, Ukraine nuclear firm Energoatom said.
The plant, in Russian hands but operated by Ukrainian workers, has 15 days’ worth of fuel to run the generators, Energoatom said.
Russian strikes were also reported in Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, and in Sumy and Kharkiv, in the north-east. Heavy fighting was ongoing in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
“The enemy is trying to keep the temporarily captured territories, concentrating its efforts on restraining the actions of the Defence Forces in certain areas,” Ukraine’s general staff said on Thursday.
Russia has said it targeted infrastructure as part of what it calls its “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military and remove what it says is a potential threat against Russia’s security.
As a result, Ukrainian civilians have endured power cuts and reduced water supplies in recent weeks. Russia denies targeting civilians, though the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and left some Ukrainian cities in ruins.
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich democracies will discuss how best to coordinate further support for Ukraine when they meet on Thursday in Germany following recent Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Reuters contributed to this report
