After withdrawing from the grain agreement, Russia’s president described the agreement as “pointless”. His country is able to pay for delivery failures – in direct cooperation with African countries.
The Russian exit from the grain agreement has raised international concerns about the supply situation, particularly in developing countries. Against this background, Russian President Vladimir Putin has now declared that his country is ready to offset Ukrainian grain shipments. He wants to “assure” that Russia is able to “replace Ukrainian grain on both a commercial and gratuitous basis – especially as we expect another record harvest this year,” Putin wrote in an article published on the Kremlin’s website on the occasion of an upcoming Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
Russia will continue to work “vigorously” on supplies of grain, food, fertilizers and more to African countries, it said. “We value the full breadth of economic ties with Africa and will continue to develop them dynamically.”
In 2022, Russia exported 11.5 million tons of grain to African countries, almost 10 million tons in the first six months of this year. “And this despite the sanctions introduced against our exports, which actually make it significantly more difficult for Russian food to be exported to developing countries,” Putin continued.
“Shameless Enrichment”
According to Putin, the agreement, which Russia no longer extended, which had made it possible to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea for around a year, has “lost its meaning”. According to Putin, most of the almost 33 million tons of grain exported under the agreement went to countries with high and upper middle income levels
In fact, the agreement was “shamelessly used exclusively to enrich large American and European companies that exported and resold grain from Ukraine,” Putin wrote. Since the termination of the agreement, Russia has shelled Ukrainian ports almost every day.
Russia let the international grain agreement expire a week ago – despite international appeals. The United Nations has repeatedly campaigned for the agreement to be reinstated. China also called on both sides to quickly resume exports. It is feared that global famine could spread.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that if necessary, he wanted to continue grain exports without the security guarantees of the agreement. At the same time, he recently campaigned vehemently for a continuation of the agreement with international partners. “Opening the grain corridor has absolute priority,” Zelenskyy said on Friday after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Together we must prevent a global food crisis.”
After Russia let the agreement expire, there is a new naval blockade. The government in Moscow has withdrawn security guarantees from grain carriers in the Black Sea regions under its control. “Because of Russia’s actions, the world is again on the brink of a food crisis. A total of 400 million people in many countries in Africa and Asia are at risk of starvation,” Zelenskyy said on Friday.
The Ukrainian President had also sharply criticized Russia for targeting the port city of Odessa and facilities there that are required for exporting grain. Because of the day-long attacks on Odessa, Zelenskyj had announced retaliation.