KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraineian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the Russian blockade of Ukrainian sea ports prevents Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain.
In his nightly address Monday, Zelenskyy said the result is the threat of famine in countries dependent on the grain and could create a new migration crisis. He charges that “this is something the Russian leadership clearly seeks.”
Zelenskyy accuses Moscow of “deliberately creating this problem so that the whole of Europe struggles and so that Ukraine doesn’t earn billions of dollars from its exports.”
He calls Russia’s claims that sanctions don’t allow it to export more of its food “cynical” and a lie.
EU Waffles on action against Russia
European Union leaders reached a compromise Monday to impose a partial oil embargo on Russia at a summit focused on helping Ukraine with a long-delayed package of sanctions that was blocked by Hungary.
The watered-down embargo covers only Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline.
EU Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, “cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine. Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.”
War coverage reporters being hit hard
The Ukrainian president says a total of 32 media workers have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Monday that the number includes French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff.
The French news broadcaster BFM TV says Leclerc-Imhoff was hit by shrapnel while covering a Ukrainian evacuation operation.
In his talk, Zelenskyy said: “A little more than a month ago I gave an interview to this very TV channel. It was my first interview to the French media during the full-fledged war. My sincere condolences to colleagues and family of Frédéric."
