The head of Russian diplomacy called on the European Commission to buy back Ukrainian wheat refused by certain European Union countries in order to deliver it to needy African countries. “If it spends tens of billions of dollars on Ukraine, let it buy this wheat and send it to Africa.”
Sergei Lavrov suggested to the European Commission another destination for Ukrainian grain, imports of which have been banned by certain European countries.
He also reported that 260,000 tonnes of fertilizer “remained without movement” since last year in ports in the north of the EU.
“But we are giving these grains to African countries for free. It took six months for the first shipment of 20,000 tonnes to be sent to Malawi and another 30,000 tonnes to end up in Kenya. Now we are unable to send 34,000 tonnes to Nigeria,” Lavrov said.
Tensions over Ukrainian grain
In mid-September, the European Commission decided to lift restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine to five countries bordering the Union. However, the institution forced kyiv to take measures to control exports. Subsequently, the Slovak, Hungarian and Polish authorities announced that they were unilaterally extending the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain.
Volodymyr Zelensky criticized this decision, judging from the platform of the United Nations General Assembly that it only served the interests of Russia, which angered the Polish government.
kyiv had previously announced that it had filed a complaint with the WTO against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, which extended their embargo despite the lifting of restrictions decided by Brussels.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also declared that Warsaw was no longer supplying weapons to Ukraine.
This article is originally published on fr.sputniknews.africa
