United Nations (AP)-U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday accused Russia of holding food and grain hostage for millions of people around the world to help carry out what his invasion of Ukraine failed to do. . . “
He said at a UN Security Council meeting that the war had disrupted maritime trade in large areas of the Black Sea and made the region unsafe for shipping, a trap for Ukraine’s agricultural exports and a global supply of endangered foods.
Blinken said the meeting he chaired was held in “an unprecedented period of global famine” caused by climate change and COVID-19 “and exacerbated by fighting.”
After Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, he said, its naval operations were aimed at controlling access to the northwestern Black Sea and Azov Sea and blocking Ukrainian ports, which the United States described as a “deliberate effort.” To block a safe passage. And turn off the supply.
“As a result of the actions of the Russian government, approximately 20 million tonnes of wheat are being stored in unused Ukrainian traps as food stocks around the world are declining and prices are rising, leading to a shortage of food security around the world, ”Blinken said.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, dismissed as “completely untrue” the claims of the United States and the West that “we want to starve and only you and Ukraine are worried about how to rescue the country” .
“You say we prevent the export of agricultural products from Ukraine by sea,” he said. However, the reality is that Ukraine, not Russia, intercepted 75 ships from 17 states in the ports of Nikolaev, Kherson, Chernomovsk, Mariupol, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhny and weakened the waterways.
Nebenzia warned that “if this problem is not solved, there is no question of the possibility of Ukrainian wheat export by sea”.
He stressed that Russia remains a “responsible supplier of food and energy”.
Russia expects a record grain harvest and could offer 25 million tonnes of grain exports through the port of Novorossiysk on August 1 by the end of the year, and is also ready to consider exporting at least 22 million tons of fertilizer. From June to December.
But Nebenzia said more than 10,000 sanctions against Russia had obstructed transport routes, disrupted the movement of Russian ships and prevented them from entering ports, caused cargo and insurance problems, restricted commercial transactions and create difficulties in transactions. banking.
“If you don’t want to remove the penalties you chose, why blame us for this food crisis?” churches. Why are your irresponsible geopolitical games detrimental to the poorest countries and regions?
Blinken called Russia’s statements that sanctions were responsible for exacerbating the global food crisis “false” and said that “the decision on food weapons depends only on Moscow and Moscow”.
“Sanctions do not block Black Sea ports, hijack food-laden ships and destroy Ukraine’s roads and railways; “Russia is,” he said. “The sanctions have nothing to do with emptying Ukrainian grain nets and theft of Ukrainian agricultural equipment; Russia does.”
Blinken said the sanctions imposed by the United States and many others do not discourage Russia from exporting food and fertilizers because they do not ban exports of food, fertilizers and seeds. “And we work with countries every day to make sure they understand that sanctions don’t impede the flow of these items,” he said.
UN food chief David Beazley warned the Security Council that the war in Ukraine had created an “unprecedented crisis” of rising food prices, already provoking protests, unrest and growing hunger , which will add at least 47 million people to 276 million. “Fame” before its invasion of Russia on its small neighbor.
The Executive Director of the World Food Program said 49 million people in 43 countries are “knocking on the door of hunger”.
Beazley recalled that when food prices were out of control in 2007 and 2008, more than 40 countries faced political turmoil, unrest and protests.
“We are already seeing the riots and protests we are talking about: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru,” he said. “We have already seen the dynamics of destabilization in the Sahel from Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad. These are just signs of what is to come.”
Beazley called on world leaders to do everything possible to “bring markets to a stable position as things worsen”.
Source: Huffpost
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