“The parties are urged to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative and agree that further exploitation for wrongful destructive purpose has an impact on all of humanity,” urges humanitarian NGO in the Ukraine war zone.
As America’s relationship with the rest of the world takes on a brackish flavour, or pure hostility in the majority, the human race is suffering immensely from the effects of the Russian/American war in Ukraine. It just got worse.
Read: “Biden, Xi, Putin make major worrying speeches to the world”
The “Black Sea Grain Initiative” is now indefinitely terminated by the Russian side following a rash of drone attacks on the vessels and shipping lanes providing the flow of food grains to the world, according to Russian Foreign Ministry statements and sources.
America and the United Kingdom deny that the attacks took place. But they did according to satellite imagery and witness accounts.
Unfortunately, the deal which should have been renewed in late November as a consequence of current talks, is dead. Most of the food grains were going to the European Union countries and NATO members but the small amount going to hungry nations in Africa, Latin America, and the Asian south will be missed by those people the agreement would have fed this winter.
By Rosa Yamamoto and Micheal John
The picture and its story: Signing Ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul on July 22, 2022. The signing ceremony took place at Dolmabahçe Palace. The agreement was to expire on 19 November 2022 unless renewed; renewal negotiations were being facilitated by the UN as of October 2022. Pool photo by: Umut Çolak – Voice of America. Photo is cropped. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
Russia suspended its participation on 29 October 2022 because of an alleged multi-drone attack on Russian naval ships and civilian cargo vessels in the Port of Sevastopol in Crimea. Russia will “no longer guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea Grain Initiative and will suspend its implementation from today for an indefinite period,” says a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The world’s daily bread and the “Black Sea Grain Initiative” is crucial to healthy human life. Photo Credit: Saskatchewan Wheat Developers. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
In 2022, 47 million people were estimated to endure severe hunger as a result of the world’s soaring food costs partly due to the impact of sanctions related to the 24 February 2022, Russian “Military Operation in Ukraine”. Developing and emerging countries in Asia, Africa and South America have been impacted the most from this war due to their reliance on imported grain and fuel which is heavily sanctioned by the United States.
A certain truth then and now: In Ukraine, 13 May 2014, the US was dragging us towards war with Russia. “Washington’s role in Ukraine, and its backing for the regime’s neo-Nazis, has huge implications for the rest of the world,” wrote The Guardian’s war correspondent, filmmaker and author John Pilger on Tuesday 13 May 2014. Art by Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
Humanitarians proposed a regional ceasefire solution.
“With negotiations for the renewal of the “Black Sea Grain Initiative” still somewhat in progress, global Civil Society NGOs in Ukraine and Russian territories have met to discuss the desperate need of Russian and Ukraine food grains around the world as well as fertilizers and other agricultural products, propose that a cease fire in Crimea, Odessa and the corridors specified in the “Black Sea Grain Initiative”,” explains Geraldine Frisque of The RINJ Foundation.
“The parties are urged to renew the “Black Sea Grain Initiative” and agree that further exploitation of the “Black Sea Grain Initiative” for wrongful destructive purpose has an impact on all of humanity,” she added.
Strong suspicion has grown among all sides that the USA/Ukraine side used the grain deal and the vessels to move explosives into Russia in order to blow up the Crimean Bridge. Local Medical workers share the scuttlebutt.
Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin warned that if it is revealed that Ukraine exploited grain corridors to smuggle explosives, “it would put the very existence of these corridors in question.”
“The explosives, according to some investigators, originated in the port city of Odessa and traveled through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia before reaching the target destination at the Russian mainland side of the Crimean Bridge,” explained an EMS worker who “gets around”.
Women medical workers now in the Russian territories, unable to leave “[allegedly] because of the American and Ukraine fighters doing a counter-offensive attack on Donbass, the umpteenth since May 2014,” report that there is considerable anger against the West for its complicity in the “American war against Russia in Ukraine,” and that “many soldiers have family in Ukraine and the reverse is likely true, many Ukrainian soldiers having family in Russia,” said Lana, an occasional DPR ambulance driver and nurse.
Her colleague, Alona Adamovich, says she is well-treated along with her medical worker colleagues by DPR soldiers. Alona is a regional organizer and medical director of the global RINJ Foundation. She is now isolated by circumstances from Ukraine in Russian regions. The women continue to provide special care to women and girl civilians who are impacted by the constant shelling and occasional incursions by militias and army fighters who have attacked civilians.
“For the civilian side of this war, there are Ukrainians and Russians and it makes no difference to me which side they have in their minds, and I wouldn’t ask because they realize we are neutral about the politics and adamant about civilian safety,” says Alona.
“For us, this war is a nightmare, said the RINJ Foundation worker, because the events seem to be targeted against civilians primarily. The number one commodity besides food here is not cigarettes, its AA batteries,” she said in response to a question.