Food for tens of millions of people stuck in warehouses in Ukraine

President Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 30 that its ports in the Black Sea are currently blocked, while Russia controls coastal areas along the Azov coast, so Kiev cannot export “22 million tons of grain. in storage,” KyivIndependent reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: AP

According to the Ukrainian leader, the stranded grain has caused “destabilization of the situation on a global scale”. He said the current conflict “makes food expensive in many countries”, potentially leading to famine and a migration crisis.

“These are the billions of dollars that our economy needs right now,” Zelensky said. Many experts describe the stranded Ukrainian grain as food for tens of millions of people, from many regions, including Africa.

Russia and Ukraine are the world’s two leading exporters of agricultural products, especially wheat, when accounting for a third of global supply. Moscow and Kiev also supply fertilizers and many other key agricultural products to the world market.

While supplies from Ukraine are in short supply, Russia’s exports are also limited due to strict Western sanctions. Crop failures in North America and Western Europe, as well as India’s decision to restrict wheat exports, have challenged global food security.

According to the minutes of the United Nations Security Council meeting on May 21, the world has only 10 weeks of wheat left, and the situation is worse than the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

In a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is ready to coordinate with Ankara “on the shipping route of goods, including the transport of goods by sea.” grain exports from Ukrainian ports”.

Turkey controls the Bosphorus, the only way connecting the Black Sea with the vast seas.

Earlier, when talking by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin also emphasized that Moscow is willing to open a corridor for ships carrying grain from Ukraine, but in return, Western countries need to remove it. some barriers to Russian agricultural products and fertilizers.