The Grain Of The Ukraine Poem by Gert Strydom

The Ukraine is restoring and expanding
it's decommissioned river ports
in the Danube river
to be able to export its grain,
the grain that have not been stolen
as yet by the Russians.

To pass from the Black Sea
into the Danube a huge jam have
resulted while 130 Ukrainian
ships are waiting to pass
into the Danube.

These ships wait to pass through
routes going through the Sulina
and Bystre estuary canals
to be able to reach several ports
in Romania,
from where the grain will be
exported to the rest of the world.

A spokesperson for the Odessa
regional military administration
Serh iy Bratchuk says that:

'Russians are 'purposefully, '
destroying crops of grain
in the Kherson region,
with photos from the local police
of fields being ablaze Brachuk said:

'Due to shelling with incendiary shells,
large scale fires occurs everyday
in the fields...Russian troops
do not allow locals to put out the fires,
destroying granaries and equipment.'

As a result of Russian shelling
10 hectares of wheat burned down
in the Kutsurub community
in the Mikolaiv region

and in Pervomaisk a wheat warehouse
have been destroyed by Russia,
while some of the corn and wheat fields
have been mined by the Russian army

Grain, John Deere tractors
and agricultural equipment
as well as a great amount
of fertilizer have been stolen
in Melitopol by the Russians,

and had been transported by train
and military lorry
from Melitopol that was occupied
by the Russians into Russia itself,
where the John Deere company
had by satellite disable all
of the John Deer tractors and equipment.

Turkey did release the Russian cargo ship
Zhibek Zholy that had been seized
with stolen grain that sailed under
Russian instructions and a Russian flag,
left the occupied Ukrainian port
of Berdyansk,
had transported 7000 tons
of stolen Ukrainian grain
to Karus in Turkey.

The office of the Prosecutor General
of Ukraine has asked the Turkish authorities
to treat three other Russian ships of the
United Russian Shipbuilding company
the cargo-ships: Mikhail Nenashev,
Matros Pozynich and Matros Koshka
similar as the Zibek Zholy,

but Turkey permitted these ships
to trade for Russia with stolen grain
where these ships like other Russian ships
in April to May have turned off
their trackers and have left the
grain terminal in the port of
Sevastopol in the Crimea,
where these ships by all probability
have grain taken by Russia
from the Kherson region.

The Russian ship Sormovskiy 48,
had carried corn stolen by Russia
from the occupied
city of Kerch on its way to Karasu
in Turkey,
with no AIS giving a false destination
as Izmir.

Where the words of both Nazar Bobetski,
from the Polish Union of Employers
and Entrepreneurs,
and those of Asli Aydintasbas
of the European Council
of Foreign relations have come true
where Nazar Bobetski did say:

'This is a complete farce.
It's extremely likely that Russia
will say:
'look, we can organize safe corridors
for grain, ' but from
the Russian occupied ports -
meaning that Ukrainian farmers
will have to surrender the grain
to the Russian forces
in order to get transit'

and Asli Aydintasbas commented:
'Russia's entire game is about
getting the Ukraine to walk away
from this grain export mechanism.'

Yevhen Balytskyi who has very recently
being appointed by Russia
after its occupation of Zaporizhzhia
as governor of Zaporizhzhia hailed this as:
'Russia's entire game is about
getting the Ukraine to walk away
from this grain export mechanism.'

Yevheny Balytskyi the Russian appointed
head of Zaporizhia oblast have agreed
to export grain to Saudi Arabia,
Iran and Iraq and the grain promised
to Iran alone is 150000 tons.

The head of RT media
the Russian English news network,
Margarita Simonyan stated
on 2 June 2022 that:

'Russia and Putin is convinced
that the famine caused by Russia's
warship blockade in grain will force
the entire world to lift sanctions
to stop the effects of global famine.'

Here in South Africa officially we stand
neutral towards the Russian war
in the Ukraine,
but behind the scenes are supporting Russia
and the president Cyril Ramaphosa has recently
spoken to Putin to get grain
and other food and fertilizers

from Russia for South Africa
and other African countries
and this conversation took place
in the context of BRICKS discussion
that had taken place.

In the midst of this selling
of stolen grain,
of stolen fertilizer
and stolen tractors
of which the Russians
can only use the wheels,

Russia, Turkey, the UN and Ukraine
do claim that there are developments
in the negotiations of taking away
the grain blockade on Odessa.

They state that although all the
elements have not been addressed,
each party has returned to
speak with its government and military,
to develop an appropriate kind of plan.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres,
described the negotiations as
"a critical step forward."

Hulusi Akar, the defence minister of
Turkey said that Turkey will ensure
the safety of the shipments that
are in transit while the UN,
Ukraine and Russia will jointly
inspect the grain cargoes
in the ports of Turkey.

After signing an agreement to open
the port of Odessa for grain exports
in a treaty that Russia signed with Turkey

and the UN that partners with another treaty
that Ukraine did sign with Turkey and the UN
to guarantee the safety of the port of Odessa
and to allow grain to get out of the Ukraine,

within hours of this agreement
four Kalibr missiles had been fired
from a Russian submarine against
Odessa.

Take note that Kalibr missiles,
are solely used and owned by Russia.

Two of the missiles could be
intercepted but two of the missiles
did hit the harbour of Odessa.

The US ambassador to Kiev Bridget Brink
describes the attack as 'outrageous.'

The office of the UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres says he
'unequivocally condemns' the missiles
fired on Odessa.

The EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell
called the attacks 'reprehensible'
and he added that this again demonstrate
'Russia's total disregard for international
law and commitments.'

The Ukraine foreign ministry spokesman
Oleg Nikolenko says:
'It took less than 24 hours for Russia
to launch a missile attack on Odessa's port,
breaking its promises and undermining
its commitments before the UN and Turkey
under the Istanbul agreement.
In case of non-fulfilment,
Russia will bear full responsibility
for a global food crisis.'

As I have said there is no sense
in making agreements with a madman
that want to expand Russia.

Putin do not have any ability,
need or notion to keep to agreements
and constantly he wants to take
more and more of the Ukraine

and this is far worse than
Sudetenland at the beginning of
the Second World War.

Where Russia tries to re-establish
Russian credibility in the world,
set an act up as if they are the
good guys that want to help
the world with food,

in this Russia steals from the Ukraine,
steals grain and people and children
and possessions and destroy,
murder, kill and rape.

In the Russian controlled Donetsk Republic
Denis Pushilin,
has made a memorandum of cooperation
with the Russian appointed military-civilian
administration in Kharkiev
and with the Russian appointed Viyaly Ganchev,
which shows that Russia will only be satisfied
with all of the Ukraine.

The Russians want to have sanctions dropped,
the say that they want to
get 30 million tons of grain
and 50 million tons of fertilizer out
into the world.

This firing of these missiles proof
how Putin and his totalitarian
police state of Russia really is,
where Russia is unable or unwilling
to keep to agreements
at a fundamental level.

There is no point in negotiating a settlement
with people that do not keep to agreements,
the only option that remains is
for the Ukraine to win this war.

Russia has either an inability
or a great unwillingness to keep
to agreements and commitments
or maybe both.

Ukraine will have to take back
all of its territories
that Russia have occupied,
where like not keeping
to commitments,

Russian occupation
goes hand in hand with atrocities
and real oppression.

To me the scenarios coming from this is:
that Putin is playing off the oligarchs,
bureaucrats and governors that want peace
and their things back against the hawks

that wants war and to take the Ukraine
and Europe and believe that Russia has not
really begun to fight like Igor Girkin and
Denis Pushilin.
Putin plays them against each other
to stay in power,
where he makes sure that those who want war
comes out on top.

Puslilin says:
that 'the Ukrainian nationalists
in Mariupol are stubborn to give up;
must be eliminated.'

In Mariupol 100000 people are without
drinking water, food and medical care
and proper sanitation and cholera is going
rive and Puslilin is only interested
in education,
which comes down to indoctrination
to be pro-Russian

In another scenario in view of the Turkish defence
minister Hulusu Aker saying that Russia 'told us
that they had nothing to do with this attack and
they were looking into the issue very closely, '
suggest that over a submarine Russia has lost
control.

If a Russian submarine has gone rogue,
in Sevastopol at the Black Sea Fleet
there is the 149th Antisubmarine tactical group
and the 68th Coastal Defence Ship Brigade
that is dedicated to hunt for submarines,
as well as five of the other submarines
that is already active in the Black Sea
and the Sea of Azof,
if the submarine B-265 Krasnodar has
not already returned to the Black Sea.

Another scenario is that Putin
may have lost control over certain aspects,
or parts of the Russian military,
where they act to undermine any kind of peace,
where Putin cannot admit that he has lost control
of the military in a way,

or over a part of it and all of the time
he has to present
that he is in full control as the macho dictator.

In all of this there are people like Mikhail
Mishustin the Russian prime minister
and Elvira Nabiullina the head
of the reserve bank of Russia,
who are not involved with the war
and are not supporting it
but are trying to work
to better Russia,
and they may have some sanity
in a mad world.
© Gert Strydom