JRL NEWSWATCH: “Make Ukraine’s grain Russia’s loss; The world should not let Vladimir Putin abandon the grain deal; Here is how to get him to sign up again” – The Economist
“… In the days before a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg on July 27th, … Putin published an article … to justify why he has abandoned the grain deal …. Promising to make up the shortfall, he wrote that the ‘so-called’ deal solely enriched Western businesses, and that promises to exempt Russian exports from sanctions had been broken. Pretty much every word was false. … [T]he world should press Russia to revive the grain deal …. Ukraine’s Western backers … [should] signal[] that if diplomacy fails they will use force to break an illegal blockade of international waters. Giving Ukraine long-range missiles would be a first step; offering insurance for convoys another. A last resort would be to provide them with a military escort. If Turkey exercises its right to refuse warships access to the Black Sea through the Bosporus, some [NATO] members could supply air cover instead. …”