Kyiv is seeking a joint military patrol among Black Sea countries in order to continue grain exports from its ports after Russia exited a deal ensuring the safety of cargo ships, Ukraine's presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak told AFP on Wednesday.
"Negotiations are ongoing at all levels. A UN mandate should be added here to create a military patrol that would include countries in contact with the region, for example Turkey, Bulgaria or any others," Podolyak said in an interview.
The senior official also told AFP news agency that Ukraine's military needs an additional 300 armoured vehicles and dozens of F-16 fighter jets to accelerate its efforts to wrest Russian forces from entrenched positions in the south and east of the country.
"Of course, we need additional armoured vehicles -- two to three hundred tanks first of all. We need 60 to 80 F-16 planes in order to close the skies well, especially in the area near the front."
"Undoubtedly, this operation will be quite difficult, long and will take quite a lot of time. But, in the meantime, Russia does not have the means, for example, to take the initiative. That is already obvious," the official, Mykhailo Podolyak said.
Any compromise with Russia to end the war in Ukraine would "destroy" Kyiv's statehood as Moscow "hates" Ukraine and seeks to recreate the Soviet Union, presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak told AFP.
"For us a compromise does not exist because Russia hates us, it came to destroy the concept of the Ukrainian state," Podolyak said. "A compromise would in one way or another lead to the slow loss of Ukraine and its statehood" and the "return of the Soviet Union," he added.
Ukraine is setting up a temporary shipping route to maintain grain shipments after Russia quit a deal allowing Ukrainian exports via a UN-backed safe corridor in the Black Sea, Kyiv said on Wednesday.
Russia attacked Ukraine's Black Sea Odesa port for the second consecutive night on Tuesday after quitting the deal on Monday, which included Moscow revoking guarantees for safe navigation.
In an official letter letter dated July 18 submitted to UN shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Ukraine said it had "decided to establish on a temporary basis a recommended maritime route".
"Its goal is to facilitate the unblocking of international shipping in the north-western part of the Black Sea," Vasyl Shkurakov, Ukraine's acting minister for communities, territories and infrastructure development, said in the letter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Black Sea grain deal could continue without Russian participation, and Ukraine is working on options to keep its commitments on food supplies.
There are a "number of ideas being floated" to help get Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertilizer to global markets, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Ukraine added in the letter to the IMO that it had created a "mechanism" to provide "guarantees of compensation for damage" to charterers, ship operators and owners of vessels "caused as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation".
It said this would be offered while the commercial ships were in Ukraine's territorial waters or when such vessels were heading to or from the country's open sea ports for cargo transportation.
Nevertheless, since Russia's move to exit the deal, insurers have been reviewing their appetite to cover ships into Ukraine.
A cargo insurance facility that provided cover for shipments via the previous corridor deal has been suspended, the policy's broker Marsh told Reuters on Tuesday.
Norwegian shipping insurance group DNK, which provides war risk policies, told news agency Reuters on Wednesday it was currently unable to provide cover for Ukraine as the grain corridor deal was suspended.
Additional war risk insurance premiums, which are charged when entering the Black Sea area, need to be renewed every seven days.
They already cost thousands of dollars and are expected to go up, while shipowners could prove reluctant to allow their vessels to enter a war zone without Russia's agreement. There is also the risk of floating mines.
"In this situation, going in now each underwriter will want to take responsibility for their own position, their own rates and their own underwriting," an insurance industry source said.
"It will come down to if the premium is sufficiently large and the risk is deemed bearable."
(With inputs from agencies)
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