Ukraine asks Western partners to help protect ports from Russian attacks

Vitaliy Koval, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, took part in a meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, as well as the Secretaries of State of Finland and Iceland, who visited Ukraine at the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sibiga.

“Together with our leading exporters, we told the ambassadors about the consequences of Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports in Odesa region and their impact on food security in Ukraine and the world. Russia is deliberately destroying Ukraine’s economy, reducing our export potential and undermining global food security. It is deliberately provoking a food crisis in those parts of the world that are directly dependent on Ukrainian grain supplies. After all, despite the war, Ukraine delivers products for 400 million people in more than 40 countries,” Vitaliy Koval emphasized.

According to him, in the last three months alone, the enemy fired 60 times at port infrastructure facilities. As a result, 79 civilians were injured, almost 300 port infrastructure facilities, 177 vehicles and 22 civilian vessels were damaged or destroyed.

“I told the ministers that, in addition to the physical destruction of our infrastructure, the enemy is spreading negative myths about Ukrainian exports. For example, it spreads false information that our products are flooding European markets and therefore there is no place for their products. He called on the ministers to counter disinformation with a united information “front”. And also to condemn Russia’s actions at the international level as a deliberate act of economic terrorism and global destabilization,” the Minister said.

Vitaliy Koval also said that the meeting was attended by the heads of agricultural companies that suffered from attacks on port infrastructure. They explained with examples how Russia’s aggression aimed at disrupting the work of Ukrainian ports is not only destroying Ukraine’s economy, but also has long-term consequences for the world’s food security. In this regard, they appealed to international partners to increase assistance with air defense equipment.

Tags: ports, Ukraine, Norway, Latvia, Estonia, war, Sweden, Denmark