At the UN, the United States and Russia blame each other
The exchange of accusations between the two countries took place during a meeting of the UN Security Council hosted by the United States.
According to Antony Blinken, “the food supply of millions of Ukrainians and millions of other people around the world has literally been taken hostage by the Russian army”.
Getty Images via AFP
The United States and Russia on Thursday blamed themselves at the UN for worsening food insecurity around the world, with Washington calling on Moscow to allow Ukrainian grain exports blocked at Black Sea ports.
“Stop blocking Black Sea ports! Allow the free movement of ships, trains and trucks carrying food out of Ukraine”, launched the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, during a meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations organized by the United States. “Stop threatening to suspend food and fertilizer exports to countries that criticize your war of aggression,” he added.
According to Antony Blinken, “the food supply of millions of Ukrainians and millions of other people around the world has literally been taken hostage by the Russian army”. Denouncing a Western desire “to blame Russia for all the problems in the world”, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia rejected the Western accusations as a whole.
The food crisis in the world has existed for a long time and its root causes come from an “inflationary spiral” fueled by rising insurance costs, difficult logistics flows, and “speculation in Western markets”, said the diplomat Russian. Ukrainian ports are blocked by Ukraine, by the mines scattered by this country along the shores of the Black Sea, by kyiv’s lack of willingness to cooperate with shipowners to free dozens of foreign ships, he also asserted. Vassily Nebenzia once again denounced the imposition of Western sanctions against his country, assuring that their consequences worsen food insecurity.
A “grain theft” denounced by Ukraine
“The sanctions do not block the ports of the Black Sea, do not trap the ships filled with food and do not destroy the Ukrainian roads and railways”, had previously underlined Antony Blinken. “The sanctions do not prevent Russia from exporting food and fertilizers” and they “deliberately include exclusions for food, fertilizers and seeds from Russia”, added the secretary of state, for who “the decision to weaponize food comes from Moscow and Moscow alone.” This assertion was shared by Ukraine.
“We demand that Russia put an end to the theft of Ukrainian cereals, estimated today at already 500,000 tons, “unblock Ukrainian seaports, restore freedom of navigation and allow the passage of commercial ships”, declared Serhii Dvornyk, member of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission to the UN. “About 400 million people in the world depend on grain supplies from Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian diplomat. “Before the invasion, Ukraine exported 5 million tonnes of grain per month”, which fell in March “to only around 200,000 tonnes, in April to around 1.1 million tonnes”, he said. .
In the wake of an appeal to Russia by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to free Ukrainian grain exports, some 80 countries intervened at the Security Council meeting on Thursday, overwhelmingly expressing concerns about the risk of food shortages.
Posted today at 03:02
You found an error?Please let us know.
–
