MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

With the Black Sea deal closed, EU looking to expand Ukraine export routes via road and rail

Following on Russia's unilateral withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal and its threats to ships transporting agricultural goods from Ukraine, the EU said on Tuesday that it was looking into expanding export routes via road and rail.

Some 60% of Ukrainian grain is already transported over land through what the EU calls solidarity lanes, according to the European Commission. The question is what will happen now to the volume that was exported through the Black Sea.

“There are other ways to get the grain out of Ukraine, for example through Romania and through Poland,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said from Brussels.

“If the Russians persist in this policy of preventing Ukraine from exporting grain and fertilizer, we will have to find other ways to get the grain out,” he added.

But the export of Ukrainian goods via Europe has caused problems to local markets in Poland and some other EU countries who may not be happy to see that volume increase.

That may be why the EU is also supporting efforts by the UN and Turkey to bring Russia back into the Black Sea deal, according to a top EU official.

The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, also condemned Russia's decision not to extend the deal, calling it “one of the worst things [Russian President Vladimir] Putin could have done.

”It means that hundreds of thousands of people around the world will be deprived of basic food,“ he said.

Meanwhile from Washington the head of the USAID development agency, Samantha Power, revealed a package of US$ 250 million in funding for farmers who have been hit by the Russian blockade of grain exports over the Black Sea.

The blockade came into effect when Russia launched its invasion in February last year. The Black Sea deal lifted this blockade temporarily, but on Monday Russia withdrew from the deal, throwing the future of Ukrainian agricultural exports into question.

Power made her pledge while visiting the major Ukrainian port city of Odesa. She said that funds would go towards boosting agricultural infrastructure and expanding export routes. She called on other governments and the private sector to match USAID's US$ 250 million.

”We have a collective interest in ensuring that Ukrainian farmers stay in business,“ she said in a briefing with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.

A day after quitting the Black Sea grain deal, Moscow said that attempts by Ukraine to continue exporting grain across the sea could incur ”risks“ due to a lack of security guarantees.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Turkey and the UN — the mediators of the previous deal — could continue to keep Ukrainian ships exporting grain to the international market.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov apparently rejected this as a possibility, saying that Russia carries out military activities in Black Sea waters.

”We're talking about an area that's close to a war zone... Without the appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise there. So if something is formalized without Russia, these risks should be taken into account,” he told a briefing.