The reason for this is that ship inspections are half of what they were four months ago, leading to a backlog of ships carrying grain exports from Ukraine.
The Joint Coordination Center said that Ukrainian food exports fell from 3.7 million metric tons in December to about 3 million metric tons in January.
The hurdles come as separate agreements are being floated for renewal next month on maintaining the flow of supplies from the warring nations.
The decrease in the amount of grain coming out of Ukraine raises concerns about the impact on those suffering from hunger in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
US officials such as USAID Administrator Samantha Power and US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield blame Russia for the slowdown, saying food supplies to vulnerable countries are being delayed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a statement Wednesday on Facebook that Russian inspectors were “systematically delaying inspections of ships” for months.
They accused Moscow of obstructing work under the agreement and then “taking advantage of the opportunity for uninterrupted commercial shipping from Russia’s Black Sea ports”.
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