According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the future of Ukraine depends on the outcome of the battles in key sections of the front in the east of the country. “Bilohorivka and Marinka, Avdijwka and Bakhmut, Wuhledar and Kamyanka – and the future that we will have will be decided in other places,” he said in his video speech every evening on Monday. “We must break the enemy’s military power. And we will break it.”
According to Zelenskyj, the Ukrainian government is also looking for ways and means of actively supporting agriculture in the second year of the war. “This is already the second wartime seeding,” says Zelenskyj. “Over the past year, thanks to the heroic efforts of our farmers and all workers in the agricultural sector, it has been possible to maintain agricultural production and Ukraine’s global role as a guarantor of food security.”
Before the war, Ukraine was one of the most important grain suppliers in the world. Thanks to an agreement between the warring parties brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, Ukraine was recently able to export grain by sea. This grain agreement, which expires on March 18, is currently facing a possible extension, although for the time being Russia has only agreed to extend the deadline by another 60 days. Russia initially blocked grain exports via the Ukrainian Black Sea ports in February 2022, but the agreement was later reached.
According to Zelenskyi, Ukrainian agriculture also suffers from another war-related problem. “To date, more than 170,000 square kilometers of our territory are threatened by enemy mines and unexploded ordnance,” said Zelenskyy. “A large part of this area is our farmers’ land.”
At its meeting on Monday, the Ukrainian government discussed possible measures to speed up demining, Zelensky said. Among other things, cooperation with foreign partners is to be intensified.