EU agriculture ministers seek ways to resume grain exports from Ukraine

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BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union agriculture ministers were meeting in Brussels Tuesday to discuss how to get grain vital to world food security out of Ukraine after Russia suspended a deal allowing exports. At the same time, they want to protect prices for farmers in countries bordering the war-torn nation.

German minister Cem Ozdemir warned that ministers must strike a balance between those two issues without eroding the bloc’s support for Ukraine in the war sparked by Russia’s invasion last year.

If cracks open in the unity of the EU, “the only one who will be happy is Vladimir Putin,” he added.

This is the first ministerial meeting since Moscow withdrew last week from the wartime deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to flow to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.

The deal offered guarantees that ships would not be attacked as they entered and left Ukrainian ports, while another deal made it easier to export Russian food and fertilizer.

The Russian decision “is a very serious problem, not only in community markets, but could have consequences for food safety around the world,” said the Finnish minister, Sari Essayah. Ministers “must ensure that Ukrainian grain reaches world markets through the territory of the EU.”

Polish minister Robert Telus was expected to say at the summit that his country, along with Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, are extending the ban on importing Ukrainian grain, but will continue to allow it to pass through its territory to other parts of the world.

For his part, Lithuanian Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Navickas suggested on Tuesday that export procedures for the grain could be moved from the Ukraine-Polish border to Lithuanian ports to prevent it from being stranded in Poland and causing a glut that drives down the price for local farmers.

Ozdemir appeared to back the plan, saying Ukrainian grain could be brought in sealed containers to Baltic ports.

“I am sure that the friends in the Baltics will be happy to help and transport it from there to where it is needed in the south of the planet,” he said.

In recent days, Moscow has attacked Ukrainian infrastructure critical to grain exports, after vowing to respond to an attack that damaged a crucial bridge between Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed by the Kremlin, and Russia. Russian authorities blame the attack on Ukrainian maritime drones.

Ukraine is trying to continue sea exports. In a letter sent to the International Maritime Organization, which depends on the United Nations, it said it had established its own temporary corridor and indicated that it “will provide guarantees of compensation for damages.”

But Russia has warned that it will assume that ships passing through certain parts of the Black Sea are carrying weapons to Ukraine. In an apparent reciprocal gesture, kyiv indicated that ships going to Russian ports in the region will be considered “carriers of military cargo, with all associated risks.”