Vladimir Poutine proposed several solutions, Friday, to export cereals blocked to Ukraine due to the conflict. After a meeting with Russia’s head of state, the president of the African Union, Macky Sall, said he was “assured”.
The offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine has paralyzed the food exports of these two agricultural giants, raising fears of a global food crisis, particularly in Africa.
Faced with growing concerns, the Senegalese president and current chairman of the African Union, Macky Sall, spoke for three hours with Vladimir Putin on Friday in Sochi.
We left here calmly, said Mr. Sall after the meeting. He indicated that the head of state of Russia is aware that the crisis and sanctions create serious problems for weak economies, such as the economies of Africa.
There is no problem with the export of grain from Ukraine, said Mr. Putin. He mentioned the possibility of exports from Ukrainian ports, others under Russian control or through Central and Eastern Europe.
The Russian president said it was possible to proceed to the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk, located on the Sea of Azov that provide access to the Black Sea. These cities were occupied by Russian forces.
” We are ready to provide safe passage for vessels using these ports, including Ukrainian vessels. “
He also mentioned exports through Black Sea ports that are still under Ukrainian control, especially in Odessa.
For this, he again requested that the water of these ports be cleaned of Ukraine. In return, he assured that Russia would allow safe passage. Kyiv describes this request as blackmail.
Mr. Putin also indicated that it is possible to export via Romania, Hungary, Poland, or, easiest, cheapestof Belarus, on condition that Western sanctions against that country be lifted.
Africa is a victim of the situation
Mr. Sall, accompanied by the head of the African Union Commission, Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, asked Vladimir Putin to realize since Africa was victim of the situation.
In fact, the UN is scared a storm of famine in African countries that import more than half of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia.
That was pointed out by Mr. Sall most African countries had refrain from condemning Russia in two UN votes.
He said food tensions have been exacerbated by Western sanctions, which affect Russia’s logistics, trade and financial chains, and prevent it from exporting its essential fertilizers.
He called for it to be the food sector out of punishment imposed by the West on Moscow.
Rising grain and oil prices
The paralysis of Ukrainian and Russian exports led to rising grain and oil prices, whose prices exceeded those recorded in the Arab Spring in 2011 and the food unrest in 2008.
The UN Food and Agriculture Program (FAO) estimates that between 8 and 13 million more people could suffer from undernutrition worldwide if the crisis lasts.
The lights are red because ships are no longer leaving Ukraine, which is the fourth largest exporter of corn. Ukraine was already on its way to being the world’s third largest exporter of wheat and alone accounted for 50% of the world’s trade in sunflower seeds and oil before the war.
The Kremlin said the blockade was not its work or a result of the presence of the Russian war fleet in Ukraine. To prevent the crisis from continuing, he called for the lifting of sanctions and demining of Ukraine’s ports.
Russia’s head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, was in Turkey on June 8 to discuss with his counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu the establishment of maritime corridors allowing the free movement of goods in the Black Sea.
Source: Radio-Canada
