- Russia fulfills Putin’s promise as it sends 200,000 tons of free grain to six African nations.
- Moscow’s Agriculture Minister, Dmitry Patrushev, announces grain shipments to Somalia, Burkina Faso.
- UN Chief Antonio Guterres refers to Russia’s grain pledges as “a handful of donations.
According to Russia’s agriculture minister, Moscow has started sending free grain supplies to six African nations in up to 200,000 tons, as President Vladimir Putin had pledged in July.
Dmitry Patrushev stated in a Telegram statement that ships bound for Somalia and Burkina Faso had already departed Russian ports and that more cargo was on its way to Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR).
Black Sea Grain Saga
At a conference with African leaders in July, just after Moscow withdrew from an agreement that had enabled Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports despite the conflict with Russia, Putin had offered to give free food to the six countries.
The agreement, dubbed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, has assisted in bringing down prices on the world market. However, Putin contended that it was not delivering supplies to the nations that needed them the most.
Putin claims that Russia exported almost 60 million tonnes of grain last year. UN Chief Antonio Guterres referred to the pledges of free grain as “a handful of donations.”
Following its withdrawal from the agreement, Russia has bombarded Ukrainian ports and grain storage facilities on many occasions; according to Kyiv, hundreds of thousands of tons of grains have been destroyed. However, Ukraine announced on Friday that it had successfully shipped 4.4 million tonnes of goods, including 3.2 million tonnes of grain, through a newly built maritime channel that it had created in August.
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