Trofimtseva: the EU must ignore Russia’s blackmail regarding the Grain Agreement

Olga Trofimtseva, special envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, believes that the EU should not make concessions to Russia when deciding the fate of the Grain Agreement.

As the Financial Times wrote, the European Commission may be planning to make concessions to Russia and connect a branch of the sanctioned Rossilhospbank to SWIFT. In this way, Europe hopes to contribute to the continuation of the Grain Agreement.

At the same time, the special envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine insists that the “appeasement of the aggressor” will be a pretext for further blackmailing the Kremlin.

“On the one hand, any opportunities for agricultural export are good. On the other hand, to make concessions to the blackmailer is to encourage him to blackmail further. This is a well-known axiom: the blackmailer does not stop if you fulfill his demands. He just comes up with new excuses for blackmail,” the official said.

Trofimtseva added that without the liberation of the Black Sea basin from Russia’s military presence, the work of the Grain Initiative will always be in jeopardy. Instead, for now, it is worth focusing on creating alternative ways of exporting Ukrainian agricultural products.