Moscow halts grain deal in what UN calls a global blow to people in need

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/crimea-bridge-key-russian-supply-line-damaged-two-dead-reports-blasts-2023-07-17/

by LinuxBender • 3 years ago

3 10 3 years ago

reuters.com

mydriasis2• 3 years ago

Hours earlier, a blast knocked out Russia's bridge to Crimea in what Moscow called a strike by Ukrainian sea drones.

It's a terrible situation, but what exactly do you expect the Russians to do in response to something like that?

torsday• 3 years ago

I don't think anyone expects much of Putin other than acts of a tyrant, but it should be pointed out that one was a military target and the other feeds the poor.

mydriasis2• 3 years ago

I'm not disputing that, but you can't blow up someone's bridges and expect them to want to play nice. It's not realistic.

droptablemain2• 3 years ago

"Military target" is a curious phrase given that this seems to be civilian infrastructure (of course it's probably important for the military as well). Pre-war, looks like the bridge saw around 15k in daily traffic. https://www.zr.ru/content/news/920305-8-millionov-avtomobili...

So the real question is, why is Ukraine attacking civilian infrastructure? Is that not terrorism? And an even better question is, why is the West helping them do this?

jfengel• 3 years ago

To answer your question with a question: why did Putin agree to this in the first place? And what as changed?

The main reason is to keep this local. Grain shipments feed a lot of poor people, and ending them turns into a humanitarian crisis very quickly. That can bring in even more pressure from places that are otherwise neutral about this war.

But it doesn't matter if he loses. So that humanitarian gesture gets thrown out when there is a way to say "But they did it first". It doesn't really matter all that much how reasonable that is. It's all a big, poorly-defined mess of who is willing to tolerate what, and what pressure they can bring to bear.

Ukraine surely knew that this would happen at some point. At most, it matters when they can force the issue. Putin can halt the deal, but that just puts shipping back into jeopardy. If they've degraded Russia's forces and can defend their shipping well enough, they don't care whether Putin abides by that deal or not.

They may or may not have judged that correctly. War is always a matter of taking your best guess, and then adapting when you find out the reality on the ground.

Moscow halts grain deal in what UN calls a global blow to people in need

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