Addis Ababa, September 09, 2022 (Walta) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that “almost all” the Ukrainian grain shipped under a UN-backed deal to ease a global food crisis was reaching rich European nations, an accusation denied by Ukraine.
Putin said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian grain export was helping richer European countries at the expense of the developing world.
“Almost all the grain exported from Ukraine is sent not to the poorest developing countries, but to EU countries,” he told an economic forum in Russia’s Pacific port of Vladivostok.
But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a statement denied the claims made by Putin, who ordered his forces to invade Ukraine in February leading to disruption in grain exports. Both Ukraine and Russia are two of the biggest exporters of wheat and other grain.
“In total, two-thirds of the ships sent are directed to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East,” Kuleba said, adding that the recovery of Ukrainian food exports through the “grain corridor” had a positive effect on the reduction of prices as in August, after first shipments were completed, wheat prices fell by at least five percent.
“The Russians’ fakes about sending Ukrainian grain only to Europe simply do not correspond to reality,” Kuleba said.
Designed to help ease global food prices by increasing supplies, the pact has been the only diplomatic breakthrough between Moscow and Kyiv in more than six months of war.
(Source: Al Jazeera)