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Ukraine: Global food concerns grow as grain deal pauses

KYIV, Ukraine –

US President Joe Biden warned that global hunger could increase due to Russia’s suspension of a United Nations-brokered agreement allowing ships carrying Ukrainian grain to safely pass through.

“It’s really outrageous,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday. “There’s no benefit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that would be the end of it.”

Mr. Biden spoke hours after Russia announced it would immediately stop participating in the deal alleging that Ukraine orchestrated a drone strike on Saturday against the ships of the Sea Fleet. Black Russia off the coast of occupied Crimea. Ukraine has denied the attack and says Russia mishandled its own weapons.

The grain initiative has allowed more than nine million tonnes of grain in 397 ships to safely leave Ukrainian ports since it was signed in July and the head of the United Nations on Friday urged Russia and Ukraine renewed the agreement when it expires at the end of November. The Grain Agreement has succeeded in lowering global food prices, which have fallen about 15 percent from their peak in March, according to the United Nations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the decision predictable and said that Russia has been deliberately aggravating the food crisis since September. Currently, about 176 ships full of grain are being impeded. back out of Ukrainian ports, he said.

“This is food for more than seven million consumers. … Why can a few people somewhere in the Kremlin decide whether there will be food on the tables of people in Egypt or Bangladesh? ‘ he said Saturday in his nightly address to the nation.

Other Ukrainian officials were even more vehement, with one saying Russia had started a real-life “hunger game” for the world’s poor.

A ship carrying 40,000 tons of grain to Ethiopia under a United Nations aid program was unable to leave Ukraine on Sunday due to Russia’s suspension of the deal, said Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister.

Russia’s actions are facing international condemnation. European Union foreign policy director Josep Borrell urges Russia to reverse its decision in a tweet Sunday. Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said the world body was in contact with the Russian authorities about the decision and it was important for all parties to refrain from any act of obstruction. cereal initiative.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Russia had set conditions for its withdrawal from the deal for some time. The institute said that even if Ukraine ordered an attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Saturday, it would be proportionate to Russia’s intense bombing campaign against civilian targets and energy infrastructure. volume of Ukraine in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, Moscow stepped up missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s power plants, water supply systems and other critical infrastructure, damaging 40% of the systems. electricity in Ukraine and forced the government to implement a power cut. The mayor of Kyiv said the Ukrainian capital’s electricity system was operating in “emergency mode”.

The Kremlin has said it is ready for peace talks but insisted they should be held with Washington, which Russia sees as Kyiv’s “mastermind”, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman told Russian state TV channel on Sunday.

“Obviously, the decisive vote belongs to Washington… Can’t talk about something like Kyiv,” he said.

Such a request is unlikely to be accepted by governments in Ukraine or the United States

As diplomats focused on grain-laden ships, Russian missile strikes repeatedly hit key front-line hotspots in Ukraine.

In the past 24 hours, Russian missiles have killed at least five people and injured nine, according to Zelenskyy’s office. During the fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine, Russia is trying to capture the city of Bakhmut and several villages in the area have come under shelling.




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