View of the Odessa Marine Station and the Odessa Hotel from the Potemkin Stairs. File photoWASHINGTON, May 18.U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said intensive diplomatic contacts were under way to resume commercial and humanitarian shipping from the Ukrainian port of Odessa. He accused Russian forces of blocking Ukraine's Black Sea coast and obstructing grain supplies to the world market.
Pushilin said when the port of Mariupol will reopen «We are working closely with Ukraine and the UN, other allies and partners on this issue. We support efforts to ensure the supply of this grain to the world market so that food prices can be reduced everywhere» , Sullivan said at a briefing at the White House. «Intensive diplomatic negotiations are underway,» he added, urging Russia to stop shelling Odessa and lift the blockade from its port. the number of ships in the Black Sea and to the outside world. «Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
