Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of ships carrying Ukrainian grain

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s address to the citizens of Ukraine at the end of the 240th day of the war with the Russian Federation. The corresponding video was published by the press service of the president.

“These weeks, the situation around the export grain initiative is becoming increasingly tense. The enemy is doing everything to slow down our food exports. Today more than 150 ships are in the queue to fulfill the contractual obligations to supply our agricultural products. This is an artificial queue. It was created only because the fact that Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of ships.

Every day that ships with food are waiting in line means an increase in social and political tension in the countries that consume our agricultural products. During the operation of our grain initiative, due to the Russian slowdown, we under-exported about 3 million tons of food. And this is the annual volume of consumption for 10 million people.

Russia is doing everything to ensure that at least hundreds of thousands of these people become forced migrants who will seek asylum in the same Turkey or EU countries, or die of hunger. And we with our partners must do everything so that the grain initiative is not only preserved, but also works at 100 percent capacity,” Zelenskyi said.

Tags: Ukraine, export, grain