Ukraine hopes talks can unblock supplies of grain
But Kyiv getting ‘no positive feedback’
Ukraine’s foreign minister said Friday his country remains willing to engage in diplomatic talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies and to achieve a political solution to the war in Ukraine but won’t accept ultimatums from Moscow.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Ukrainian government had received “no positive feedback” from Russia, which he alleged “prefers wars to talks.”
“We are ready to talk, but we are ready for a meaningful conversation based on mutual respect, not on the Russian ultimatums thrown on the table,” Kuleba told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven major economies,
Kuleba said his talks with G7 counterparts had been “helpful, fruitful, very honest and result-oriented.”
He praised them for the financial and military support they have so far provided to Ukraine.
But he urged Ukraine’s supporters to supply more weapons, including multiple launch rocket systems and military planes, and to put further pressure on Russia’s economy by stepping up sanctions and following Canada’s lead in seizing Russian sovereign assets to pay for rebuilding Ukraine.
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief announced plans to give Ukraine another 500 million euros ($673 million) to buy heavy weapons to fend off the Russian invasion.
“We will provide a new tranche of 500 more millions to support the military of Ukraine,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, said at the G7 meeting in Weissenhaus, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast.
The funds would be allocated for the purchase of heavy weapons and take the EU’s total financial support for Ukraine to 2 billion euros, he added.
EU diplomats cautioned that any disbursement requires backing from the bloc’s 27 members. Some countries are expressing misgivings, and approval is unlikely before next week.
Borrell also expressed hope of soon getting the bloc’s member states to agree an oil embargo against Russia, despite resistance from Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian imports.
Kuleba said he plans to join a meeting of European Union diplomats in Brussels on Monday, where the issue will be discussed. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that failure to unblock millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine, a major agricultural exporter — could cause severe food shortages in future.
“We can only see the tip of the iceberg at the moment,” she said. “We all know that if climate crisis hits in summer around the world, the situation will get even worse.”