US working on "Plan B" for Ukrainian grain exports following Odesa strikes, says USAID

US working on "Plan B" for Ukrainian grain exports following Odesa strikes, says USAID
# 25 July 2022 13:49 (UTC +04:00)

The United States is working with Ukraine on a "Plan B" to get grain exports out of the country following Russia's attack on the port of Odesa, US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power said Sunday, APA reports citing CNN.

The strikes came just a day after Kyiv and Moscow signed an agreement to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, leading to anger and concern over the future of a deal aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by war.

"Plan B involves road and rail and river and sending in barges and adjusting the rail systems so that they're better aligned with those in Europe so that the exports can move out more quickly," Power told CNN's Larry Madowo in Nairobi, Kenya.

"We have been living the contingency plan because there's no way you can trust anything that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin says."

Some 20 million metric tons of wheat and corn are trapped at the port of Odesa, Power said, adding that despite the food security afforded by alternative routes out of Ukraine, "there is no substitute for Putin allowing the blockade to end and the grains being sent out the most efficient way possible."

She said she hoped the grain deal "somehow sticks" despite Russia's move to "immediately turn its back" on the agreement by attacking Odesa — the main port named in the accord.

#
#

THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED