U.S. Calls On Russia To Stop Theft Of Ukrainian Grain, Pledges Accountability

Washington on Thursday called on Russia to stop 'theft' of Ukrainian grain, "which is illegal and which we intend to hold the Russians accountable for," a senior U.S. official said, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

Doug Jones, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the State Department's Foreign Press Center.

"There is growing food insecurity in the world that's caused by Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine," Jones said in response to TURAN's questions.

"It's clear why there is growing food insecurity and it's because of Russia... And we are taking actions to address this as best we can to mitigate it," he said.

But Russia's blocking of the export of grain is the root cause, he emphasized.

When asked by TURAN about growing Russian aggression in its neighborhood, DAS Jones said, the Kremlin was "threatening and using force" against the peaceful neighbor, committing atrocities within Ukraine — these are all reflected in NATO's strategic concept that the alliance has had to adapt to those.

NATO Strategic Concept, by definition, speaks mainly to the threat to the alliance. But we also speak about partnerships, he explained.

NATO has a broad network of partnerships, including with those countries that seek to join the alliance, such as Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The alliance also made decisions on ways to enhance partnerships to improve resilience, he added.

Jones also spoke about western sanctions against Russia, saying that they are 'having an impact' on Russian economy, and promises to broaden the restrictive measures.

"We have seen Russia defaults on their foreign loans, we have seen their inability to replace a lot of their weapon systems that they are loosing in Ukraine as a result of export default. We have seen another impacts on their economy," he said.

Washington will continue to put economic pressure on Russia not only by maintaining the current sanctions regime, but by broadening restrictions and enhancing its implementation, the official added.

When asked about U.S.-Turkey military cooperation following last week's NATO summit, Jones said President Biden is willing to cooperate with U.S. Congress on the renewal and modernization of Turkey's F-16 fighter jet fleet.

"So the F-16 issue has been up there for a while. And I think the administration has stated his position on this, which is that the administration supports Turkey's modernizing," he said.

"The President has also been clear that he needs to support Congress to do this as well. So the leaders have spoken about this, but the position of the administration remains what it was before, before the summit in support of this sale, and expressed the willingness to work with Congress," Jones added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.