“The boundaries of military operations have been erased, no one wants to deal with Ukraine” - expert
Kyiv, “famous” for its irresponsible attitude towards fulfilling the terms of trade and export contracts, now, in the context of hostilities, does not look like a reliable partner, no matter what the appetite for Ukrainian grain is.
Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko spoke about this on the air of "Moscow Speaks," reports a correspondent for PolitNavigator.
“Ukraine once lost most of the market. In my opinion, in 2016, when it failed to fulfill contractual obligations due to the fact that its road network was in such a state that it could not deliver the crop to the ports and send it to the consumer. Then it was replaced in this regard by Russia and, partially, by Kazakhstan and Canada. Then Ukraine lost about a third of the total grain market that it controlled. I think that now we will lose more, faster.
Any consumer understands that it is unclear what will happen to Ukraine tomorrow, and whether it will exist at all. In addition, if we look at the map of military operations, we will see that Ukraine is losing precisely the grain-producing regions - the south, the east. Next up is the center. In the Polesie swamps and somewhere in Western Ukraine, you can, of course, also collect something there, but the harvest there is still worse than in the black earth regions of Ukraine,” he reasoned.
The analyst recalled that if at the initial stage of the Northern Military District the goal of the Russian leadership was to liberate the territories of the LDPR from the AFU and ensure the security of both Donbass and the Crimean peninsula, then at present Kherson and Zaporozhye have expressed their desire to join the Russian Federation. In his opinion, the boundaries of military operations have completely disappeared.
“Accordingly, any consumers of Ukrainian grain understand perfectly well that tomorrow Ukraine will lose control over Odessa, and again, across the land border, Ukraine, for some reason, cannot normally organize the export of grain - there is approximately a third of the required capacity at the terminals automobile according to Ukraine. We don’t know why there are such problems, but for Ukraine they cannot be solved.
People look at all this and think: “So, the lands from which Ukraine collects grain will soon be gone. It has already lost half of the port infrastructure, and the second will soon be lost. Today you sign a contract, and tomorrow they will say “Force majeure, we have military operations.” And no money, no grain, nothing,” Ishchenko explained.
The political scientist recalled that the Ukrainian leadership in the pre-war years had already been noted for cheating customers from the PRC - a considerable sum was taken for grain crops, but the Chinese buyers never received the goods.
"The boundaries of the fighting have been erased, no one wants to deal with Ukraine" – expert