Russia is jeopardising global food security

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues. Russia has once again attacked the port of Odessa for the fourth night in a row, destroying several warehouses of grain, cereals and peas. President Zelenski has claimed that Russia has launched 70 missiles and that they have no anti-aircraft capability to deal with these attacks. The Kiev government follows Putin's lead and warns that any ship bound for a Russian port in the Black Sea may be considered a military target. The United Nations warns Russia that the bombing of civilian companies in Odessa is a war crime.
 

Journalist María Senovilla, a contributor to the magazine Atalayar, came to the microphones of "De cara al mundo" on Onda Madrid to give the latest news on the key aspects of the conflict on Ukrainian territory.

María, where are you?

I'm in Kramatorsk, in the rearguard of Bakhmut, but I'm keeping a close eye on the massive attacks that the Kremlin is launching against Odessa and the southern region of Ukraine.

Let's talk about these bombings. Maria, what are the consequences of the breakdown of the Grain Pact and what are the consequences of these missiles hitting the warehouses? According to various sources, some 300 tonnes of grain have been destroyed.

There has been talk of 300 tonnes of grain. Beyond the destruction that is being caused, which certainly in Odessa has not been seen since the war began, is that these attacks are not only targeting port infrastructure as such. They are bombing, as you rightly say, the silos where the grain that was ready to be exported was stored. 

They are also bombing the fuel depots and, incidentally, the Kalibr missiles have hit several residential areas near the port of Odessa, where a dozen people have been wounded. The destruction is such that the government has already warned that it will take more than a year to rebuild everything damaged. Everything was precipitated on Monday when Russia unilaterally broke the grain agreement that allowed Ukraine to continue exporting cereals and fertilisers across the Black Sea.

Let us remember that Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe before the war began, although most of its exports went to China, which was Ukraine's main trading partner in terms of grain, but another very important part, up to 23%, was destined for Africa, both to countries like Egypt, which could pay for this grain, and to other countries where the food crisis has worsened in recent years, among other things because of climate change, and to which this grain came through international cooperation.

With these attacks, which Zelenski has already described as terrorist acts, Russia is intentionally destabilising migratory flows from Africa, which could get out of control in the coming months because, logically, people emigrate before dying of hunger in order to feed their children. And these migratory flows, which are going to Europe, have consequences when they arrive in an uncontrolled manner. This use of illegal immigration as a weapon of war is nothing new, because Russia has been using it for years in countries like Latvia or Lithuania, for example, where when you visit them they tell you that for years Russia has been sending busloads of people from countries like Afghanistan or Syria, who arrive deceived, because they don't know they are crossing Europe, and with the aim of socially destabilising countries where labour integration is very complicated.

Well, Russia is now doing this and is going to be one of the six countries most affected by this. And beyond Spain and beyond the migratory flows, which we insist are going to intensify due to the breakdown of the grain agreement and the lack of food. Moreover, Russia is endangering food security worldwide.

There are several sides to the war. Maria, the Russian counter-attack in the east with the reserves it had in Lugansk, how is it developing?

Depending on the sides, here as always, each side launches reports, communiqués that are more in their favour. The Russian side said that the counter-attack launched by the Kremlin in the east of the country had mobilised the more than 100,000 men it had stationed in the province of Lugansk. A good part of those men were from the forced mobilisations they carried out in October, who are supposed to have been training since then and are now ready for the attack.

Well, they're lending themselves to the Kupyans-Kremina axis and, according to what they said yesterday on the Russian side, they've managed to advance up to nine kilometres in the direction of Kupyans and they've managed to take over several important railway junctions. The Ukrainian side denies this, saying that they have managed to repel all the offensive columns, but they do recognise that in that part they do not even control a detonator because it is under artillery crossfire. They say that the grey zone has increased and there are now up to 18 more localities, localities to the east of Kharkov, which have come under Ukrainian crossfire in the grey zone.

Beyond the mapped advances of those 9 kilometres that Russia may or may not have advanced, what the Kremlin's move has meant is that Zelensky has been forced to split his army. He has been forced to send soldiers to the east of Ukraine, to the east of Kharkov, and in this way relieve some of the pressure that was being exerted by the counter-offensive that was advancing through Zaporiya and also through Bakhmut.

One last point, Maria. The reappearance of Prigozhin. If it wasn't so relevant and cruel a situation, could we say that he wasn't dead and that he was out there? What makes you think about Prigozhin?

We could say. Prigozhin had been missing for almost a month, remember, since he rose up in rebellion against his own government, against Putin's Ministry of Defence, and in the wake of that failed coup attempt that he stopped at the last moment, when he was leading his mercenaries against the city of Moscow. Two hundred and something kilometres away, he turned around, said he didn't want a bloodbath and decided to stop that attempted rebellion, and was exiled to Belarus.

Putin said he would take Wagner Group members who didn't want to join the Russian army, and he was supposed to have gone to Belarus. He had been missing for several weeks. This is a man, let's remember, who was used to sending messages, to sending videos through his social networks, through his Telegram, and this prolonged silence of several weeks was very strange, which is why it was thought that he might be dead. Then he reappeared, he recorded a video at the foot of his private plane, to say that he was in Belarus, to say that his troops, his mercenaries, were not going to return to fight in Ukraine, and that it was a disgrace what was happening on the front line in Ukraine, which is also very ironic, because he was part of that disgrace for the last 16 months, also taking part in such devastating offensives as Mariupol and Bakhmut.

But now he seems to be backing away from everything the Wagner mercenary leader has done, and says that his men are not going back to fight in Ukraine for the time being, and that they are going to focus on the projects they have, just as we are not going back to Africa again. So, the Wagners, as we have also mentioned in some programmes, have contracts with the governments of some African countries, some Sahel countries, and now they also have a presence in Sudan, and it seems that Prigozhin's intention is to focus on this part of the planet, to intensify his activities there with his mercenaries, and not to participate again until the situation in the war in Ukraine changes.