Speaking at a press conference in Sochi with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan following trilateral talks aimed at restoring peace in the Caucasus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian forces had endangered cargo ships carrying grain through a humanitarian corridor set up by Russian forces to allow their passage near the conflict zone.
"These drones, both underwater and aerial, they partially traveled in the corridor along which grain is exported from Ukraine,” Putin said. “And in this way they created a threat both to our ships, which should ensure the safety of grain export, and to civilian ships that are engaged in this, and we have pledged to ensure this security, but if, pardon me for the expression, Ukraine strikes these ships, we will be ‘guilty.’”
“Just like everyone is now blathering on about what Russia is doing, not remembering what caused it, but it is caused by creating a threat to this humanitarian corridor," he added.
The deal establishing the corridor was suspended in the wake of the Saturday drone attack, which hit infrastructure in the Crimean port city as well as ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which are based there.
Putin added that the corridor was established “under the pretext of ensuring the interests of the poorest countries,” but that most of the grain exported through it hadn’t gone to those who need it the most.
“I don’t remember the data of the last hours and the last days, but in general it looks like 34% of grain goes to Turkey, 35%, a little more - to the EU countries, and only 3 to 4%, well, according to the Ministry of Agriculture - maybe sometimes it happened a little more, up to 5%, this figure fluctuates, because more is exported here and there - went in favor of the poorest countries," the Russian president told reporters.
A boat with Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. officials heads to the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, to check if the grain shipment is in accordance with a crucial agreement signed last month by Moscow and Kyiv, at an inspection area in the Black Sea off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022
© AP Photo / Emrah Gurel
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said earlier on Monday that Moscow would step in and help as much as possible the nations most affected by the suspension of the grain deal.
Putin also told reporters in Sochi that the decision has “not yet been made” about whether or not he will attend the Group of 20 (G20) summit on November 15 and 16 in Bali, Indonesia. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said last week he would not give in to Western pressure to rescind the invitation, as happened with Putin’s invite to the funeral of UK Queen Elizabeth II last month.
Putin added that European nations were trying to exclude Russia from various international formats, including the talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that had just concluded thanks to Putin’s moderation.
The Russian president also noted that Gazprom had been allowed to examine the blast site on the Baltic Sea seafloor where the Nord Stream pipeline had ruptured for several days last month, but gave no further details.
Russia’s special operation in Ukraine began in February following the collapse of months of negotiations with NATO about Russia’s security red lines in the region. The operation aims to accomplish what the talks did not: neutralization of Ukraine as a potential base from which NATO forces could attack Russia, and the ending of the neo-Nazi threat posed to ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking peoples in the region. Last month, four breakaway regions from Ukraine with Russian-speaking majorities voted to join the Russian Federation.