The United States has accused Russia of holding the world food supply hostage amid growing fears of famine in developing countries, as a former Russian president warned the Kremlin would not release vital grain shipments without an end to Western sanctions.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia to lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and allow the global flow of food and fertilizer at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.
“The Russian government appears to believe that using food as a weapon will help achieve what their invasion failed to achieve — breaking the spirit of the Ukrainian people,” he said at the meeting convened by the Biden administration .
“The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has been literally held hostage by the Russian military,” he added.
Blinken called on Russia to “stop threatening to hold back food and fertilizer exports from countries critical of your war of aggression.”
Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of the world wheat supply and 69% of the world sunflower oil.
Earlier Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and now a top security official, warned that Russia would not resume food deliveries unless the West relaxed its sanctions on the Kremlin.
Following requests from the Western government and the United Nations for Moscow to allow the flow of food to stave off possible famine in some countries, Medvedev said Thursday Russia is ready to do so but expects “support from trading partners, including on international platforms.” Return.
“Otherwise there is no logic: on the one hand, insane sanctions are being imposed on us, on the other hand, they are demanding food deliveries,” Medvedev said on the messaging app Telegram. “It doesn’t work that way, we’re not idiots.”
“Countries that import our wheat and other food products will have a very hard time without supplies from Russia. And in European and other fields, without our fertilizer, only juicy weeds will grow,” added Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012 but is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.
“We have every opportunity to ensure that other countries have food and that there are no food crises. Just don’t interfere in our work.”
Ertharin Cousin, executive director and founder of Food Systems for the Future and co-author of a report on the subject with Boston Consulting Group, said the crisis could have global repercussions. “While this crisis will affect all of us around the world in significant ways, low-income economies risk devastation and potential unrest,” she said. “We’re not just talking about the poorest of the poor who are already starving. We’re also talking about people who, a short time ago, could afford a loaf of bread for their family and now can’t.”
Demands for sanctions on Russia’s economy to be lifted could fuel Western efforts to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to counter Russia’s naval blockade. Ukraine has already sunk Russia’s flagship battlecruiser Moskva, but its military would need more sophisticated missiles to force Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to retreat.
According to a Reuters report, the White House is working on such a plan. Three U.S. officials and two congressional sources said two types of powerful anti-ship missiles are being actively considered, either for direct shipment to Ukraine or for transfer from a European ally who owns the missiles, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The plans are dampened by concerns that supplying Ukraine with the latest anti-ship weapons could exacerbate the conflict. Current and former U.S. officials and congressional sources have also cited barriers to shipping longer-range weapons to Ukraine, including lengthy training requirements, difficulties maintaining equipment, or concerns that weapons could be captured by Russian forces.
Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and a spate of unprecedented international sanctions against Russia have disrupted shipments of fertilizer, wheat and other commodities from both countries and pushed up food and fuel prices, particularly in developing countries.
Serhii Dvornyk, a member of the Ukraine mission to the United Nations, supported Blinken’s claim and urged Russia to stop “stealing” Ukrainian grain and open the ports, noting that 400 million people around the world rely on grain from the United Nations are dependent on Ukraine.
The country’s grain exports fell from 5 million tons a month before the Russian invasion in February to 200,000 tons in March and about 1.1 million tons in April, he added.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, countered that his country was being blamed for all the world’s suffering.
He said the world had long suffered from a food crisis caused by an inflationary spiral driven by rising insurance costs, logistical snarls and speculation in Western markets.
He argued that Ukraine’s ports were blocked by Ukraine itself, which he said had laid mines along the Black Sea coast.