More than 100 grain ships blocked on the Bosphorus

Serious allegations against Russia: Ukrainian grain exports are said to have been waiting for Russian inspectors for weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denounced an ongoing blockade of grain shipments by Russia. More than 100 ships on the Bosporus in Turkey are currently unable to continue their voyage because the Russian representatives there have refused the agreed joint inspections, Zelensky said in a video message to an international conference of agriculture ministers in Berlin on Saturday. The ships would be held up “for weeks,” he criticized.

This means higher prices for Europe, Selenskyj made clear in his message to the conference chaired by Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens). For Asia it means a growing risk of social instability and for countries in Africa such as Ethiopia or Sudan empty dining tables for thousands of families.

The President underlined that despite the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine wants to continue providing food to the world. Despite continued Russian rocket attacks on infrastructure and brutal fighting in regions that are extremely important for agriculture, farmers continued to till the fields.

In his message, Zelenskyy praised the fact that the agreement “brought millions of tons of Ukrainian products back onto the world market.” However, due to the continuation of the Russian war of aggression and Russian blockades, the volume of Ukrainian food exports is still half less than before the war, when the total volume of these exports was 6.5 million tons per month.

An agreement was signed in July, brokered by the UN and Turkey, to enable the safe export of Ukrainian grain through a protective corridor in the Black Sea. This agreement was then extended by four months in November. It provides for joint inspections of grain carriers’ cargo by representatives of the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.

Without naming Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy added that the international community must “hold accountable any tyrant who tries to turn hunger into an instrument of political influence.”

Meanwhile, Russia has denied blocking Ukrainian grain ships. Russian representatives have no influence on the processes, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. Moscow calls the fact that dozens of ships are still waiting near Istanbul for permission to enter the Ukrainian ports an “artificial traffic jam”.

Department heads from more than 70 countries were expected to attend the conference of agriculture ministers this Saturday in Berlin. The conference was held on the occasion of the Green Week agricultural fair.