UK allocates £120 million to Ukraine to protect Black Sea grain corridor
23 October 2024 11:41
The United Kingdom has announced an additional £120 million in funding under the Maritime Capability Coalition, which will provide Ukraine with the ability to protect the Black Sea grain corridor. This was reported in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
According to the Prime Minister, the strikes on the Black Sea ports demonstrate Russia’s willingness to risk global food stability to force Ukraine to submit.
“Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on Black Sea ports underscore that Putin is willing to jeopardise global food security in his attempts to force Ukraine into submission. In doing so, he is harming millions of vulnerable people across Africa, Asia and the Middle East to try to gain the upper hand in his barbaric war,”
– Starmer said.
The UK will therefore donate an additional £120 million to the Maritime Capability Coalition. In addition, the UK and Norway, who are leading the defence of the grain corridor, are actively working to provide Ukraine with advanced naval capabilities, including maritime drones and radar systems to protect trade routes.
“…together, the UK and Norway are seeking a further £100 million to co-fund hundreds more. Recent gift packages have included dozens of all-terrain amphibious vehicles and raid boats, hundreds of anti-ship missiles for coastal defence and riverine operations, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition to support machine guns,”
– the statement said.
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Black Sea Grain Initiative
Ukrainian grain exports during a full-scale war were previously carried out through the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was signed on 22 July 2022 in Istanbul between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN. It consisted of two separate “mirror” agreements: between Russia and the UN with Turkey’s participation, and between Ukraine and the UN with Turkey’s participation. The initiative created safe corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain through the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne in the face of the Russian invasion.
Over the course of the agreement, by the end of October 2022, more than 400 flights were made and about 9.5 million tonnes of grain and other food products were exported to 40 countries. The largest recipients were Spain, Turkey, China, Italy, the Netherlands, and Egypt. The agreement has been extended several times, despite periodic suspensions by Russia.
on 17 July 2023, Russia finally withdrew from the agreement, after which it began to systematically launch missile strikes against the port and grain infrastructure of southern Ukraine.
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