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Ukraine’s foreign minister says grain exports from his country’s ports will not resume without receiving assurances of safety for ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation.
Military officials from Russia and Ukraine held the first face-to-face talks between their governments in months on Wednesday. They met in Istanbul to discuss a United Nations plan to ship stranded Ukrainian grain to world markets via the Black Sea.
Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of the meeting in Turkey, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said any agreement must ensure that Russia “will respect these corridors, will not sneak into the port and will not attack the ports.” God. Kuleba also said that Ukraine’s military is “planning and preparing for the complete liberation” of Russian-occupied cities and areas near the Black Sea coast. Ukrainian forces have already stepped up their activity to retake territory in the south, while Russia has concentrated on eastern Ukraine.
Asked about the possibility of negotiations to end the war that began when Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine on February 24, the foreign minister said peace talks were unlikely to happen soon.
“Russia continues to be in a state of war and is not seeking negotiations in good faith. They are looking for a way to make us implement their ultimatums, which will not happen,” said Mr. Kuleba, who became Ukraine’s foreign minister in March 2020.
Moscow is trying to make a de facto annexation of Kherson, Mariupol and other occupied cities by introducing a Russian school curriculum, doing business in Russian currency and offering Ukrainians Russian passports, he said.
“I am very confident that after these territories are liberated, the vast majority of people will quietly burn their Russian passports,” said ministry Kuleba.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is insisting on a full withdrawal of Russian forces as a condition for ending the conflict, he said.
The 41-year-old Kuleba, whose father was a career diplomat in Ukraine, previously served as deputy prime minister in charge of the country’s efforts to forge closer ties with the European Union and NATO. He is the author of a 2019 book on disinformation entitled The Fight for Reality. How to win in the world of fakes, truths and communities.”
During Russia’s ground and air war in Ukraine, Mr. Kuleba has been second only to President Zelenskyy in conveying their country’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through tweets or meetings with foreign officials.
His determination to seek more weapons from abroad and portray Russia as a treacherous aggressor is reflected in public support for Ukraine’s determined resistance.
The foreign minister admitted that Ukraine suffered significant troop losses as the Kremlin focused its military offensive on Donbas, an industrial region near the Russian border where Moscow’s forces have gradually gained ground./VOA
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