US State Department: russia again weaponizing food in war it started
russia's statement that it had withdrawn from the "grain agreement" has "immediate harmful impacts on global food security," so the United States called on the russian federation to return to fulfilling its obligations.
Voice of America reports, referring to the statement of the US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price.
According to the State Department representative, "there is no substitute for the Black Sea, for Ukraine's Black Sea ports."
"Any act by Russia to disrupt critical grain exports is essentially—would be essentially—a statement that the Kremlin doesn't care if people and families around the world pay more for food or go hungry," the State Department spokesperson said.
According to him, russia's attempts to make concessions in exchange for returning to the grain agreement will mean "collective punishment or collective extortion."
"Russia is again weaponizing food in the war that it started. The most effective step to address the ongoing food security crisis would be for Russia to immediately return to the arrangement and to end its war against Ukraine," Price said.
The US State Department emphasized that the United States calls on Russia to resume participation in the grain initiative.
"We, of course, urge Russia to honor the commitment that it has, not only to the parties to this agreement—Ukraine, the United Nations, and Turkey—but also the obligation it has to the rest of the world not to stand in the way of the delivery of much-needed grain and other foodstuffs," said a spokesman for the US State Department.
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On October 29, russia's defense ministry announced that the russian federation was suspending its participation in the "grain agreement." They said that the cause was a "terrorist attack" against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels, which Ukraine allegedly carried out with the participation of UK specialists. Britain reacted to this accusation by calling this an "invented story."
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, called on other states to demand that the russian federation "stop the hunger games" and return to its obligations. The UN reported that they already knew about the decision of the russian authorities and maintained communication with the russian federation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called russia's statements about withdrawing from the "grain agreement" "predictable" and believes that the russian federation decided on this back in September.
On October 27, the Ukrainian government reported that during the 88 days of operation of the "grain corridor," 397 ships with 9 million tons of agricultural products left Ukraine.
As Rubryka reported, in the afternoon of October 30, Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure announced the suspension of sea exports of grain.
On October 31, despite russia's demarche, Ukraine continued to export grain by sea.
