Lithuanian authorities have called on the European Union to use Baltic ports to export Ukrainian agricultural products after russia withdrew from the grain deal and began destroying Ukraine's port structure.
Source. This was reported by AFP.
This option can become a "reliable alternative" to the Black Sea corridor and will allow to transport 25 million tons of grain annually, according to a letter from three Lithuanian ministers to the European Commission.
Earlier, CEO of the Port of Klaipėda Algis Latakas said that the port could handle 10 million tons of Ukrainian grain. However, delivery to the port may be a problem, as it will require many agreements with different countries.
If the issue is resolved, Klaipėda can already provide one hundred percent service for some Ukrainian grain: the port can handle 10-15 million tons of products.
The day before, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said that he considered it wrong to ease sanctions against russia in exchange for moscow's return to the "grain deal." According to him, it is extremely unfair to make concessions to a "dictator" and "this is the position of all authorities, regardless of the level of discussion."
Nausėda noted that sanctions should not be eased against either russia or Belarus, and they should be equally strict for both countries.
russia withdrew from the Black Sea Initiative on 17 July and threatened military risks to those countries that decide to resume the agreement without it.
After that, the russian Defence Ministry announced that it would consider all ships heading to Ukrainian ports to be "military targets" and launched massive attacks on elevators and sea and river harbors in Odesa and Mykolaiv. The attacks continue to this day.
Background. As a reminder, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the sooner we received F-16s, the sooner we would create a new secure grain corridor. According to Kuleba, the issue of supplying Ukraine with fighter jets has already been resolved.