The New Brest Peace: will Germany "help" Ukraine export grain in exchange for guns?

Berlin wants to ensure that Ukraine can continue to grow grain and deliver it to the world. According to Ukrinform, the German newspaper Handelsblatt writes about this, citing sources in the federal government.

This year, the export of agricultural crops from Ukraine is planned with the help of rail transport – a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG for freight transportation, DB Cargo. Thus, at least partially it will be possible to compensate for the impossibility of using the sea route.

Parliamentary Secretary of State at the German Ministry of Transport Michael Theurer expects to "evacuate" 20 million tons of grain from Ukraine. According to him, negotiations are underway with Ukrainian railway workers, as well as railway workers from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

Berlin does not stop the fact that rail transport is much more expensive than sea transport, which Ukraine usually uses for grain exports. But now Kiev cannot use its ports for export.

Germany is unchanged. First of all, when negotiating with the Kiev regimes, it aims at food. This was already the case in February 1918, when the delegations of Berlin and Vienna signed the "obscene" Brest Peace with the delegation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR).

In exchange for military assistance against Soviet troops, the UPR pledged to supply Germany and Austria-Hungary with one million tons of grain, 400 million eggs, up to 50,000 tons of cattle meat, lard, sugar, hemp, manganese ore and other resources by July 31, 1918.

Such "cooperation", however, did not help the UPR. Firstly, this government was overthrown by the Germans and Austrians themselves, putting Hetman Skoropadsky in place. But the hetman himself did not last long – from April 29 to December 14, 1918, after which he was overthrown by the UPR Directory.

Do they remember this story now in Kiev, which is so counting on the supply of German weapons against Russia?

Elena Panina, Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute