Presidential candidate Victor Ponta vows to end Ukrainian grain exports via Romania if elected
If elected president, former Prime Minister Victor Ponta told Reuters he will ban the export of Ukrainian grain through the country's Black Sea ports to protect local farmers.
Bucharest plays a crucial role in Ukrainian exports amid Russia's threats to the Black Sea maritime trade, shipping around 29 million tones of Ukraine's produce.
"There has been a policy of favoring Ukrainian grain in terms of access to port facilities in recent years, at the detriment of Romanian grain, and Romanian farmers were greatly affected by it," Ponta said.
In 2024, Romanian farmers asked the government to advocate for import limits on Ukrainian agriculture products, protesting the economic impacts of a free trade agreement that have sparked worries about uneven competition and risks to domestic production.
Yet, the presidential candidate said that he would support other measures already in place to support Ukraine, including weapons transit and training for Ukrainian pilots.
He said that Romania can defend neighboring Moldova in case of a Russian attack but could not do so for Ukraine or any other country.
In light of President Donald Trump's U-turn in foreign policy, Ponta said that he backs "radical change" taking place in the U.S.
The re-run of Romania's presidential elections is set for May 8 after the scheduled vote in November was annulled due to allegations of Russian interference favoring far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.
He was barred from participating in the presidential election re-run.
Victor Ponta, 52, served as a Romanian prime minister between 2012-2015, representing the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He resigned after public outrage over a deadly nightclub fire.
An opinion poll conducted by polling institute Verifield showed that Ponta has a chance to enter the run-off facing far-right candidate George Simion.
Read also: As Russia refuses to accept ceasefire, will Trump pressure Moscow?
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ukraine's Sapsan ballistic missile to enter serial production following successful combat testing
Ukraine's domestically developed short-range Sapsan ballistic missile has successfully completed combat testing and is in the process of serial production, Ukrainian media reported on June 13. The missile, with a payload of 480 kg, completed testing in May after successfully striking a Russian military target at a range of nearly 300 km, Valentyn Badrak, head of the an independent Ukrainian think Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies told Ukraine's Defense Ministry reportedly dedicated a department to formulate and test the missile. There is no reported timeline as to when the missiles can be seen in regular use on the battlefield. Domestically produced long-range weapons are of key importance to Ukraine's defense strategy, as Western partners have been in delivering adequate weaponry amid increasing Russian attacks and offensives. The news comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a congressional hearing on June 10 that the United States will reduce funding allocated for military assistance to Ukraine in its upcoming defense budget In November 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine has produced its first 100 missiles. Since then, Ukraine has continued to increase domestic weapon production. Zelensky said on April 16 that over of the weapons used at the front line are now produced in Ukraine, including over 95% of drones used at front line. Zelensky also previously revealed that Ukraine had developed another domestic-made weapon, a missile-drone Palianytsia. As Ukraine attempt to increase its defense production, Russia has continued to unleash large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities, regularly launching hundreds of drones to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) with the Kyiv Independent that Russia's production of ballistic missiles has increased by at least 66% over the past year. Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in late 2024 that Ukraine also resumed and scaled up serial production of Neptune cruise missiles, modifying them to have a greater range. Kyiv has received a number of long-range missiles from partners, such as U.S.-made ATACMS, British Storm Shadow, or French SCALP/T. Despite Ukrainian requests, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on June 12 that Berlin has no plans to provide Taurus long-range missiles to Kyiv. Read also: Germany to supply new Iris-T air defense systems to Ukraine, rules out Taurus missiles We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says Nippon-US Steel deal has resolvable national security risk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Nippon Steel's $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel poses a national security risk, but those concerns can be mitigated if the companies fulfill certain conditions laid out by the Trump administration, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a executive order on Friday. "I additionally find that the threatened impairment to the national security of the United States arising as a result of the Proposed Transaction can be adequately mitigated if the conditions set forth in section 3 of this order are met," Trump said in the order released by the White House.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump urged EchoStar, FCC chair to cut a deal on spectrum -Bloomberg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump urged EchoStar Corp Chairman Charlie Ergen and Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to reach a deal over the fate of the company's wireless spectrum licenses, Bloomberg reported on Friday. EchoStar shares were up 52% in after-hours trading Friday on the report. On Thursday, Trump met with Ergen and he telephoned Carr, who came to the White House to join the meeting, Bloomberg reported. The White House and EchoStar declined to comment. The FCC did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on Friday. EchoStar has been trying to shield its cache of wireless spectrum licenses from the threat of revocation by the FCC. U.S. satellite TV provider DirecTV terminated its agreement to acquire EchoStar's satellite television business last year, which includes rival Dish TV, over a failed debt-exchange offer. In May, the FCC told EchoStar it was investigating the company's compliance obligations to provide 5G service in the U.S., questioning EchoStar's buildout extension and mobile-satellite service. EchoStar said the FCC disclosure was "harming EchoStar's ongoing deployment and threaten its viability as a wireless provider as well as endanger the video and broadband satellite services upon which millions of consumers rely." The company added "the possibility of reversing prior grants of authority related to spectrum for which EchoStar paid billions and in which it invested billions more, in contravention of long-standing commission precedent." EchoStar has previously disclosed that it missed roughly $500 million in interest payments, citing uncertainty around the ongoing FCC review.
