EU condemns Russia’s termination of Ukraine grain deal, vows help
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European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday called Russia’s decision to suspend a Black Sea grain export deal a “cynical move”, adding that the EU would continue to work towards ensuring food security for poor countries.
Russia said it had halted participation in a landmark UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea just hours after Moscow said Ukraine had attacked the Crimean Bridge.
Prices for grains and oilseeds have already risen in response to news that Russia will suspend its participation in the deal. “I strongly condemn Russia’s cynical move to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, despite UN & Turkiye’s efforts. EU is working to ensure food security for the world’s vulnerable.
EU Solidarity Lanes will continue bringing agrifood products out of Ukraine & to global markets,” von der Leyen said in a Tweet. EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said Moscow’s decision was unjustified and was using food as a weapon in the conflict with Ukraine.
Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest exporters of grain and other foodstuffs and any interruption could drive up food prices across the globe, especially in the poorest countries.Shashwat Saraf, the emergency director in East Africa for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said the impacts would be far-reaching in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, which have been facing the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades.”I don’t know how we will survive,” said Halima Hussein, a mother of five children living in a crowded camp in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu for people displaced by years of failed rains and violence.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy raised the prospect of resuming grain exports without Russia’s participation, suggesting Kyiv would seek Turkey’s support to effectively negate the Russian de facto blockade imposed last year.”We are not afraid,” spokesperson Serhiy Nykyforov quoted Zelenskiy as saying. “We were approached by companies, shipowners. They said that they are ready, if Ukraine lets them go, and Turkey continues to let them through, then everyone is ready to continue supplying grain.”
