Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russia is deliberately delaying grain export by saying “The enemy is doing everything to slow down our food exports. I believe that with these actions, Russia is deliberately inciting the food crisis so that it becomes as acute as it was in the first half of this year.”
“Today, more than 150 ships are in the queue to fulfill contractual obligations for the supply of our agricultural products. This is an artificial queue. It arose only because Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of ships. Every day that ships with food spend in the queue means an increase in social and political tension in the countries that consume our agricultural products. Here are just some of the states to which food exports are delayed due to Russia: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia. Our partners – the UN, Türkiye and others are fully informed about this situation. During the operation of our grain initiative, due to the Russian slowdown, we under-exported about 3 million tons of food. This is the annual volume of consumption for 10 million people.” said Zelensky.