Truss: We’ll give Moldova weapons to stop Putin
Foreign Secretary says Nato could increase support to Ukraine’s threatened neighbour
LIZ TRUSS has disclosed that she wants to send modern weaponry to Moldova to protect it from the threat of invasion by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said Mr Putin was determined to create a “greater Russia” despite his invasion failing to achieve quick success.
Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the south west, is not a Nato member. There are fears it could be the Russian president’s next territorial target.
Ms Truss said that talks were taking place to make sure that Moldova’s defences could deter any future attack.
Ms Truss said: “I would want to see Moldova equipped to Nato standard. This is a discussion we’re having with our allies.”
Pressed on why, Ms Truss said: “Putin has been absolutely clear about his ambitions to create a greater Russia. And just because his attempts to take Kyiv weren’t successful, doesn’t mean he’s abandoned those ambitions.”
If the plans are adopted, Nato members will provide modern weaponry to Moldova, replacing its Soviet-era equipment, and will train soldiers on how to use it. The move would be a marked expansion in the UK’S military support in the region and a further indication that the Government sees the invasion of Ukraine as a long-term turning point.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Truss called herself a “low-tax Conservative” and indicated tax cuts were the best way to “weather the storm” brewing over the economy.
She also said she would vote Brexit if she could replay the 2016 EU referendum and promised to push ahead with plans to unilaterally change the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Moscow has threatened to extend its invasion of Ukraine along the country’s south coast to meet up with Russianbacked separatists in eastern Moldova.
However, Mr Putin’s troops remain bogged down in the Donbas region. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said yesterday that Donbas had been turned into “hell” for the remaining residents.
The Telegraph witnessed a residential block being destroyed by a Russian air strike, while medics treated streams of casualties on the front lines near the key city of Severodonetsk.
Russia intensified its attack on the riverside city yesterday in what appeared to herald a major assault to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in a province it claims on behalf of separatists. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of what is left of the Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk region, said that aid convoys were being shelled by the Russians and three people were killed when a bomb hit a school.
Russia last night claimed the final Ukrainian troops in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol had surrendered. A group of soldiers inside the steelworks had been refusing to give up in defiance of an order from their government. The effects of the war are now being felt globally: the world has just 10 weeks worth of wheat stockpiled after the Russian invasion of Ukraine cut off supplies, analysts warned.
Russia said yesterday that it would build new military bases and deploy a dozen new military units to its western flank to counter Nato expansion into Sweden and Finland.
The Nordic expansion is being held up by Turkey, but The Telegraph can disclose that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, will speak to officials in London and Helsinki, and the head of Nato, today in a diplomatic blitz to win concessions before his country considers dropping its veto.
THE world has just 10 weeks’ worth of wheat stockpiled after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supplies from the “breadbasket of Europe”.
The UN has been warned that global wheat inventories have fallen to their lowest level since 2008.
Official government estimates put world wheat inventories at 33 per c of annual consumption but stocks may have slumped to as low as 20pc, according to agricultural data firm Gro Intelligence. It estimates that there are only 10 weeks of global wheat supply left in stockpiles.
Russia and Ukraine account for around a quarter of the world’s wheat exports and the West fears Mr Putin is trying to weaponise food supplies.
Russia is on track for a strong wheat harvest this year, cementing Mr Putin’s control over the staple grain as bad weather spoils production in Europe and the US.
Sara Menker, chief executive of Gro Intelligence, said global food supplies were being affected by fertiliser shortages, climate disruptions and record low inventories of cooking oils and grains.
She told the UN’S Security Council: “Without substantial immediate and aggressive co-ordinated global actions, we stand the risk of an extraordinary amount of both human suffering and economic damage.
“This isn’t cyclical, this is seismic. It’s a once-in-a-generation occurrence that can dramatically reshape the geopolitical era.”
The war has disrupted agricultural production and sent global food prices soaring to a record high, stoking fears of unrest in developing countries. The crisis in wheat has been worsened by India, the world’s second largest producer, banning exports of the cereal and higher costs for farmers from fertiliser, feed and fuel.
Western officials also fear the Russian president is deliberately trying to damage food supplies by destroying equipment and stealing grain in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned of “apocalyptic” food price rises as Ukraine struggles to export products.
“Ukraine does have food in store but it can’t get it out at the moment,” he told MPS on the Treasury Committee.
“That is a major worry, not just for this country, it is a major worry for the developing world.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that Mr Putin is “using food as a weapon”.
“The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has been held hostage. Some 20 million tons of grain sit unused in Ukrainian silos as global food supply dwindle (and) prices skyrocket.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is tightening its grip on wheat supplies after a strong harvest. Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities research at Rabobank, said mild conditions in Russia – which accounts for about a fifth of global wheat exports – had put it on track to produce 84.9 million metric tons of the grain this year.
Conditions for Western growers have been hit by dry conditions.
America’s southern plains region, as the bottom of the “Wheat Belt” that runs through the middle of the country, has been experiencing sustained drought conditions.
In a report earlier this month, the US Department of Agriculture forecast a major decline in wheat stocks, saying they will drop 6 per cent to a nine-year low of 16.8 million tons by the end of 2022–23. It expects average farm wheat prices to stand at $10.75 per bushel during this year, supported by low domestic stock levels.
Mr Mera said it “will be difficult for the world to wean itself off Russian wheat in the next 12 months”.
‘This is seismic. It’s a once-in-ageneration occurrence that can dramatically reshape the geopolitical era’