Ukraine: Moscow warns, ‘it’s like the Cuban missile crisis’

by Luca Mirone

Russia feels “threatened at its borders”, and to make the West understand how high the stakes are, it evoked the moment when the world found itself truly on the brink of World War III: the missile crisis. in Cuba between the United States and the USSR, in 1962. Foreign Minister Serghiei Lavrov’s warning was issued just after the new Ukrainian attack on Crimea, to which Moscow reacted by suspending the agreement on wheat. A tear that immediately blocked the ships loaded with cereals, and that prompted Turkey and the UN to try a new mediation. The so-called special military operation in Ukraine is not going as planned, and on the contrary, alarm is growing in Moscow over the effectiveness of the Kiev resistance, which has repeatedly gone as far as Crimea and even beyond, as the attacks on Belgorod show.

Minister Lavrov, in an interview, evoked a “situation similar to the period of the Cuban missile crisis”, stating that “today as in 1962 we are talking about direct threats to the security of Russia right on our borders”. In particular, due to a “campaign to push Ukraine with all kinds of weapons”, is the accusation against the American and European allies of Kiev. Which, among other things, are “playing irresponsibly” on the issue of nuclear weapons, with Poland “candidate” to host US atomic bombs. The drones launched on Sevastopol, which would have hit at least three ships of the Russian fleet, according to Moscow constitute further evidence of the threats to its borders.

The Defense Ministry said it had recovered fragments of the underwater drones that would have been used by the Ukrainians in the Black Sea: weapons “equipped with navigation modules produced in Canada, launched from the coast near Odessa”, probably from a “cargo ship” , taking advantage of the “corridors for the transport of cereals”. In addition to the usual strikes against NATO, Russia has nevertheless continued to hold out its hand for a negotiation. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, talks between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden could take place if the United States were willing to “listen to Russian concerns and return to discuss security guarantees”. And Lavrov himself assured the willingness to sit at the table in case of “realistic proposals”. In Kiev, however, no one believes it. For the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko it is just “another smokescreen to buy time in the background of the defeats of the Russian army”. Glimmers of dialogue, for the moment, can only be glimpsed on the wheat dossier.

Today, no ship left the Black Sea, after Russia’s decision to suspend the agreement signed in July, but the Turkish and UN mediators immediately set in motion. Ankara has explained that it is in talks with Moscow and Kiev, and in the meantime has announced that inspections of cargo ships in Istanbul will continue. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said there will be “contacts with the United Nations and Turkey in the near future”. Meanwhile, the EU and the US have appealed to Moscow to back down. But even in this case, Kiev does not trust. According to Minister Dmytro Kuleba, this tear had been “planned well in advance”, to return to blackmail the world with wheat. With the result that “two million tons of grain on 176 ships already at sea, enough to feed over 7 million people”, will not reach their destination.

Source: Ansa

Margaret

I’m a journalist who covers health care news. I’ve been working in the news industry for more than 6 years. I have experience writing for print, online, and television. My work has been published by various news websites and magazines.