russia had long planned to sabotage the grain agreement – intelligence reports

russia had long planned to sabotage the grain agreement.

This is reported by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

The intelligence agency established that the higher military-political leadership of russia prepared a confidential summarising report "on the work of the russian part of the Joint Coordination Centre during the implementation of the Initiative." It is dedicated to the technologies used to hinder the operation of the grain corridor.

According to the report, the Joint Coordination Centre aimed to minimise the volume of grain that was exported under the agreement. The document states in particular:

"A quality check of the vessels was also one of the key elements in curbing the uncontrolled growth of grain exports from Ukrainian ports... As a result of the inspections, the participation in the Initiative for 46 vessels was limited, and 303 vessels were limited in movement for a total of 342 days."

The DIU emphasises that the measures to disrupt the grain agreement were broken down into several stages. At the first stage, the russian federation suspended its participation in the agreement (from 29 October 2022 to 03 November 2022). According to russian documents, this led to a fall in the volumes of grain exports from 4.2 million in October to 2.6 in November.

At the next stage, the occupiers were implementing measures to limit the admission of vessels to the port and reduced the number of inspection teams to two, and also halted the registration of grain carriers.

"These measures allowed the russians to curb the number of vessels heading to Ukrainian ports and significantly limit the volume of food exported from Ukraine, which in total led to Kyiv's inability to export about 20 million tonnes of cargo," the intelligence agency explains.

At the same time, the russians themselves reported that "the smallest amount of food that was exported from Ukrainian ports, 7.8 million tonnes, fell during the third stage of the initiative – from 19 March to 17 July, 2023."

"The document indicates that all actions to disrupt the grain agreement are part of a single pre-planned plan. And the targeted shelling of Ukrainian port infrastructure is just the next step in its implementation," the DIU adds.

The intelligence emphasises that if the grain agreement continues, the russians will again try to disrupt the agreements, using all the accumulated experience.

Background. Mind previously reported that three grain warehouses had been destroyed in the Reni Seaport as a result of a drone attack. The explosive wave also damaged the windows of buildings and structures in the Reni Seaport.