Zelenskyy urges five EU countries not to block Ukrainian grain exports
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the participants of the Three Seas Summit in Bucharest via video link and called for abandoning further restrictions on Ukrainian grain exports.
Source: Ukrainian president, quoted by Digi24, reports European Pravda
Details: Zelenskyy recalled that Russia systematically strikes Ukrainian ports in the south, destroying infrastructure and grain stocks.
Quote: "In the end, this is a brutal aggression against everyone, including Europeans. The consequences are felt everywhere. Ukraine is against further restrictions on the export of our grain, because we need these products to be exported, because we need funds... It is about survival in the conditions of Russian terror," he said.
The Ukrainian president addressed the leaders of Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, noting that "any restrictions on Ukrainian exports only add to the suffering and destruction caused by Russian aggression".
Zelenskyy said that "the foundation of the European Economic Union is free trade and non-interference in free competition".
"We cannot calmly accept the violation of promises given to us... Ukraine is fighting for the survival of our European values, which we defend on the battlefield... We are fighting for Ukraine, and if we have to fight for the foundations of European principles, we will do it. If we have to fight in arbitration, we will do it, but we hope that unity will be preserved and that it will prevail," he stressed.
Background:
- Earlier, Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture representing Poland, supported extending the temporary ban on importing Ukrainian grain to five EU countries until the end of 2023 and proposed subsidies for Ukrainian grain exporters.
- Ukraine insists on the fact that a unilateral extension of the ban violates the rules of the common market and the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
- The ban, which applies to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, ends on 15 September.
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