Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will talk to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand that Ukrainian grain go to “the poorest countries” instead of Europe.
“Excluding Turkey as a mediator, practically all the grain that leaves Ukraine does not go to the poorest countries, but to Europe,” Putin said on Wednesday.
The Russian president, speaking during the parliamentary session of the VII Eastern Economic Forum, in Vladivostok, said that “only two of 87 ships went to developing countries. Sixty thousand tons of 2 million”.
“It is worth thinking about how to limit the export destinations of cereals and other foods along this route. I will definitely discuss it with the President of Turkey (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan,” the Russian leader said.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of violating the international Istanbul agreement by preventing the export of Russian grain and fertilizer through the Black Sea.
“Our Western colleagues are not doing what the UN Secretary-General promised us. [António Guterres]”Lavrov said at a news conference.
The Russian minister accused Western countries of refusing to take steps to “lift logistical sanctions that obstruct free access to (Russian) grain and fertilizers on the world market.”
Lavrov stressed that Moscow is working with the UN to fully comply with the agreements reached in July in Istanbul, which created a maritime corridor from the Ukrainian coast – which was blocked by the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 – to the Mediterranean for export of Ukrainian cereals.
The agreement, sealed with the mediation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also included the supply of Russian cereals and fertilizers through the Bosphorus Strait.
Several dozen ships with Ukrainian products left the ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny, located on the Black Sea.
Russia – which turned the Sea of Azov into an inland ocean by seizing the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk – maintains that its export capacity is far greater than Ukraine’s, making its supplies crucial to averting a global food crisis.
Some countries, especially African ones, have called for the lifting of sanctions affecting Russia’s grain exports.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of almost 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and almost seven million to neighboring countries-, according to the latest UN data, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community at large, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia in everything from banking to energy to sports.
In the war, the UN presented as confirmed 5,587 civilian deaths and 7,890 wounded, stressing that the real figures are much higher and will only be known at the end of the conflict.
Source: TSF
