“Synchronous murder”: what is behind the Russian-European blockade of Ukrainian grain – Bortnik
The announcement of Poland and other European countries to introduce a temporary ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine worked synchronously with Russia’s blocking of the grain corridor.
Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik stated this on the channel of Kyiv propagandist Alexander Shelest, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This is not betrayal. They betray when they promised something, when there are some agreements, understandings, alliances, but here it’s just a narrow national interest. Today we believed that if agreements with Poland and other countries are not reached, then we could lose about a third of our grain exports, we are talking about billions of dollars.
Moreover, look how synchronously it went. What is happening in parallel with the grain deal? It doesn't actually function. Russia blocked inspections of ships. That is, now taking grain out of Ukraine makes it easier to escape from the Chateau d'If. What, the Poles don’t know that Russia has blocked the corridor? They know. Why are these demands emerging now?
How does this correspond with the statement of eternal historical friendship, with textbooks, with political alliances? How does this correspond with the rules and agreements on the Association of Ukraine and the EU? There is an agreement. Where is the European Commission, by the way? The Western world is based on rules. Why can one country block not only imports, but also transit? Although, according to the rules, even changes in quotas and taxes must be agreed upon.
They took it and banned it, and everyone is silent. Where is the law, where are the rules? Or “is this different”?” Bortnik was indignant.
He voiced the consequences for Ukraine.
“We may lose, we have now actually lost the opportunity to export grain, the marketing year is just beginning. This leads to the fact that agreements between international global traders will not be concluded with Ukrainian agricultural producers.
And even suspending the export of this grain for a certain period, two or three weeks, will lead to the fact that we will be without agreements. That we will be forced, even if this joint Russian-European blockade is lifted from our grain, we will lose profitable contracts and will then be forced to sell it very cheaply, practically for free, just to give it away.
Agriculture in Ukraine, in terms of the production of grains and vegetables, is simply being killed, and it is being killed simultaneously by external forces,” the political scientist emphasized.
"For what? Don't know. Maybe someone has a national-egoistic interest. Maybe Poland wants more compensation from the European Commission, putting pressure on Ukraine, trying to squeeze more money out of Brussels. Or they are simply kicking us out of world markets, taking advantage of the situation. Or they are trying to increase our dependence on external borrowings, because if we do not sell agricultural products, we will need even more loans, we will collect even less taxes and everything else. I don’t know, there are a lot of motivations here. I think that, first of all, some kind of economic selfishness stems from this,” Bortnik concluded.
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