Ukraine War Latest: Zelenskiy says Russia is blocking export of 22m tons of grain, warns of famine

Zelenskiy says Russia is blocking export of 22m tons of grain, warns of famine

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also claimed that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports.

Now, due to the fact that Russia has blocked our ports in the Black Sea and seized our part of the coast of the Sea of Azov, we cannot export 22 million tons of grain that are already in warehouses in our country.

This is the volume that was to enter the foreign market. And Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale. As a result, food is becoming increasingly expensive in different countries. Consequently, there is a threat of famine. In Africa, in Asia, in some European countries.

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This threat could escalate into a new migrant crisis. And this is what the Russian leadership clearly wants. They are deliberately creating this problem. So that the whole of Europe faces difficulties. And so that Ukraine does not receive billions of dollars for its exports. These are the billions that our economy really needs now.

And the inhabitants of African and Asian countries are used by the Russian state simply as a bargaining chip.”

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Zelenskiy added that Russian forces “have already stolen at least half a million tons of grain” and “are now looking for ways to illegally sell it somewhere”.

“To sell it in a way to make money on what was stolen and to keep the deficit in the legal market,” he added in his latest national address.