Plan to ship grain out of Ukraine dealt blow due to mines

theguardian.com:

A plan mediated by Turkey amid a global food crisis to open shipping corridors out of Ukrainian ports has been dealt a blow as officials in Kyiv said it would take six months to clear the coast of Russian and Ukrainian mines.

Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said in a statement released on Tuesday that his government was making progress with the UN, Russia and Ukraine on reopening ports under Russian blockade in the Black Sea. The ships leaving Ukrainian ports would be given safe escort by Turkish naval vessels under the plan.

The development appeared to offer some hope as the UN warned that the war in Ukraine – a major exporter of grain – was fuelling crippling shortages of food around the world and pushing millions of people into famine. However, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agrarian policy and food, Taras Vysotskyi, responded that even if Russia lifted its blockade, thousands of mines would remain floating off the port of Odesa and elsewhere.

Vysotskyi said that Ukraine was able to export a maximum of 2m tonnes of grain a month – compared with the 6m tonnes before the war – and that it would take until the end of the year to clear the mines.

“I think we reached the limit,” Vysotskyi told participants at an International Grains Council conference. “The biggest amount we can export is about 2m tonnes a month.”

It is estimated that more than 20m tonnes of grain are stuck in Ukraine’s silos. The country has faced severe capacity constraints while trying to export its grain by road, river and rail.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Tuesday that it was the responsibility of Ukraine’s government to clear the coastal waters of mines in order to allow the resumption of exports. “This will allow