Ukraine’s president called the international community to end a Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports to allow wheat exports and prevent a global food crisis.
According to Reuters, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed the importance to prevent a food crisis in the world caused by Russia’s aggressive actions, which raise the need for “immediate measures to unblock Ukrainian ports for wheat exports.”
Regarding this matter, Michel, who chairs summits of the European Union’s national leaders, wrote on Twitter that he had seen silos full of grain, wheat and corn in Odesa that was ready for export but blocked.
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports since invading on February 24 have added to volatility in international financial markets, sending commodity prices higher. What is more, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the problem of global food security cannot be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production to the world market.
Moreover, Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi had said that Ukraine had exported 1.090 million tonnes of grain in April, but that the sowing was not of the same quality as last year.
As he explained, exports of Ukrainian grain via Romania is important, where they are being taken by rail, but added that those exports could be complicated in two months by exports of the new wheat crop in Romania and Bulgaria.
Now, Baltic ports offered the most attractive other alternative for exporting grain, Mr. Solskyi said.
Because of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the latter’s Ministry of Infrastructure has ordered to shut down the seaports of Mariupol, Kherson, Berdiansk, and Skadovsk until Ukraine regains control over them.
