Criticism of grain blockade
Selenskyj: More than 100 ships are stuck on the Bosphorus
1/21/2023 1:13 p.m
With an agreement, Russia and Ukraine want to ensure the delivery of grain. According to Zelenskyj, however, the agreement is being thwarted by the Russian side. For many countries, this means social instability due to fluctuating food supplies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denounced an ongoing blockade of grain shipments by Russia. More than 100 ships on the Bosporus in Turkey are currently unable to continue their voyage because the Russian representatives there have refused the agreed joint inspections, Zelensky said in a video message to an international conference of agriculture ministers in Berlin. The ships would be held up “for weeks,” he criticized.
An agreement was signed in July, brokered by the UN and Turkey, to enable the safe export of Ukrainian grain through a protective corridor in the Black Sea. This agreement was extended by four months in November. It provides for joint inspections of grain carriers’ cargo by representatives of the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.
In his message, Zelenskyy praised the fact that the agreement “brought millions of tons of Ukrainian products back onto the world market.” However, due to the continuation of the Russian war of aggression and Russian blockades, the volume of Ukrainian food exports is still half less than before the war, when the total volume of these exports was 6.5 million tons per month. This is causing at least 200 million people in Africa, Asia and Europe to lose food supplies, the Ukrainian President continued. He appealed to the international community that they needed “more determination and more cooperation to stop the aggression that is ruining the food market”.
Without naming Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy added that the international community must “hold accountable any tyrant who tries to turn hunger into an instrument of political influence.” Department heads from more than 70 countries were expected to attend the conference of agriculture ministers this Saturday in Berlin. The conference was held on the occasion of the Green Week agricultural fair.