MOSCOW
\nThe chairman of the African Union, Senegal\u2019s President Macy Sall, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages, and appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports aren\u2019t blocked.
\nFor his part, Putin blamed the West for emerging global food and energy crises and repeated his government\u2019s offers of safe passage for ships exporting grain from Ukraine, one of the world\u2019s leading exporters of wheat and corn.
\n\u201cWe will facilitate the peaceful passage and guarantee the safety of arrivals to these ports, as well as the entry of foreign ships and their movement through the Azov and Black seas, in any direction,\u201d Putin pledged, in remarks carried on Russian state TV after his meeting with Sall in the Black Sea city of Sochi.
\nUkraine and its allies have said that Russia is to blame for blocking Ukraine\u2019s grain exports, because of threats to shipping from Russian naval vessels. Ukraine also fears that opening up safe corridors to Ukrainian ports could make them vulnerable to Russian attack.
\nAfrican countries are especially hard hit by the food shortages and price increases. They imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to U.N. figures, and wheat prices have soared around 45% as a result of the supply disruption, according to the African Development Bank.
\nRussia, the world\u2019s largest wheat exporter, has urged the West to lift sanctions imposed over its military action in Ukraine so that grain starts flowing freely to global markets. While food and fertilizer are exempt, sanctions have targeted Russian shipping and made international shipping companies reluctant to transport Russian cargoes.
\n\u201cThe fact that this crisis brought the cessation of exports from Ukraine, but also from Russia because of sanctions, we have found ourselves in between these two,\u201d Sall told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s of absolute necessity that they (Western partners) help to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grains, but also that Russia is able to export fertilizers, food products, but mainly cereals.\u201d
\nIn citing the sanctions as a contributing factor, Sall is partly supporting Putin\u2019s explanations. The Russian president appears to be attempting to drive a wedge in international support for sanctions and emphasize that other countries are suffering more than Russia, in terms of inflation, shortages of goods, the burden of refugees from Ukraine, increasing inflation, and the costs of economic and military aid to Ukraine.
\nBritain last week accused Russia of \u201ctrying to hold the world to ransom\u201d by demanding relief from Western sanctions to allow grain exports.
\nUkraine and the West have accused Russia of blocking Ukrainian ports to halt exports, endangering world food supplies.
\n\u201cRussia has played hunger games recently to put the blame on Ukraine and others for blocking Ukrainian food exports,\u201d Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine\u2019s envoy to the U.N. office in Geneva, said in an interview Friday.
\nPutin on Friday again denied blocking Ukrainian ports, and said it was a \u201cbluff\u201d to blame Russia.
\n\u201cOf course, we are now seeing attempts to shift the responsibility for what is happening on the world food market, the emerging problems in this market, onto Russia,\u201d he said. on Russian TV. \u201cI must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick to a healthy head.\u201d
\nPutin on Friday proposed several corridors to allow foreign ships safely to leave ports along the Black and Azov seas. He said Odesa and other ports under Ukrainian control could be used for exports after mines are removed and also those now under Russian control \u2013 Berdyansk and Mariupol. He also suggested moving grain through other countries such as neighboring Belarus.
\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday that Ukraine was ready to create the necessary conditions to resume exports from Odesa, the country\u2019s largest port.
\n\u201cThe question is how to make sure that Russia doesn\u2019t abuse the trade route to attack the city of Odesa,\u201d Kuleba tweeted. \u201cNo guarantees from Russia so far. We seek solutions together with the UN and partners.\u201d
\nSall noted problems with the Belarus option. \u201cAnother way is to pass through Belarus, but Belarus is also under sanctions, although it\u2019s the most direct way in reality, through Belarus to the Baltic Sea,\u201d he said.
\nThe supply chain issues brought on by the fighting in Ukraine come as large portions of Africa already were grappling with drought and other problems.
\nSenegal was one of 17 African nations that abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution condemning Russia\u2019s military action in Ukraine. According to the partial Kremlin transcript, Sall told Putin many African countries didn\u2019t condemn Moscow despite what he described as strong pressure to do so.
\nThe United Nations has warned that 18 million people are facing severe hunger in the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara Desert where farmers are facing their worst agricultural production in more than a decade. About 13 million more people face severe hunger in the Horn of Africa region as a result of a persistent drought.
\nWith the conflict in Ukraine now in its fourth month, world leaders have ramped up calls for solutions. World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said about 25 million tons of Ukrainian grain are in storage and another 25 million tons could be harvested next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW The chairman of the African Union, Senegal\u2019s President Macy Sall, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages, and appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports aren\u2019t blocked. For his part, Putin blamed the West for emerging global food and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[8146,1946,515,633],"class_list":{"0":"post-264547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-african-union-leader","9":"tag-grain","10":"tag-supply","11":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"yoast_head":"\n