Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky launched a new appeal on Saturday June 11 for international pressure to obtain that Russia end the blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, thus allowing exports necessary to avoid a world food crisis.
Speaking via video to the Asia-Pacific security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, he warned that without a resumption of Ukrainian exports, “the world will face a severe food crisis, and even famines, in many countries in Asia and Africa”.
Millions of tonnes of grain blocked
Ukraine was, before the Russian invasion, the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil and one of the main exporters of wheat, and millions of tonnes of cereals are currently blocked, unable to export them because of the Russian blockade. The United Nations and some countries are pushing for the opening of a maritime corridor allowing Ukrainian exports to resume.
“Scarcity of food will inexorably lead to political chaos, which risks bringing about the overthrow of many governments”the Ukrainian president told delegates in Singapore for the summit, including Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Chinese defense minister.
Kyiv is currently in discussion with the United Nations, Turkey and other countries to open such a corridor to allow the export of grain. For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met this week in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart on this subject, but without progress for the moment.
Ukraine, said Volodymyr Zelensky, currently exports two million tonnes of grain by train each month, but this remains well below what it usually exports.
France “available to the parties”
France, for its part, said it was ready to help lift the blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa, in order to get blocked cereals out of Ukraine as deadly fighting rages in southern and eastern Ukraine. . “We are at the disposal of the parties for, basically, that an operation be set up which would allow access to the port of Odessa in complete safety, that is to say to be able to pass boats despite the fact that the sea is mined”said an adviser to President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, who received Senegalese President Macky Sall, also President of the African Union, on Friday.
Macky Sall had the day before clearing the port of Odessa, and indicated that he had received assurances from President Vladimir Putin that the Russians would not take advantage of it to attack, as the Ukrainians fear. The French president is due to travel to Romania and Moldova on Tuesday and Wednesday, pending a visit to Ukraine, the date of which has not yet been set, according to the Elysee.
For her part, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, arrived in kyiv on Saturday morning to discuss with President Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine’s application for membership of the European Union.