US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia on Thursday of using famine as a weapon of war against Ukraine and endangering other countries by blocking Ukrainian agricultural exports.
“The food supply of millions of Ukrainians and millions of other people around the world is now literally held hostage by the Russian military,” President Joe Biden’s government secretary told a UN Security Council meeting.
Blinken accused Moscow of repeatedly blocking supplies of food and other essentials to civilians trapped in besieged cities to “achieve what its invasion failed to do: break the spirit of the Ukrainians”, as well as destroying food warehouses and stealing grain. and other products.
According to the US Secretary of State, Russia is flagrantly violating the Security Council’s own resolution that condemns this type of strategy and “is the latest example of a government that uses the hunger of civilians to try to advance its objectives.”
At the same time, he recalled that Ukrainians are not the only ones suffering the consequences of the war, as the conflict is raising food prices and aggravating the hunger crisis that was already beginning to be experienced in many countries.
Blinken, who yesterday presided over a ministerial meeting on the matter, once again demanded that Russia stop “blocking the ports of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov” so that Ukraine can export the millions of tons of grain it has stored and that are critical to many parts of Africa and the Middle East.
In addition, he accused Russia of threatening to restrict its own exports of food and fertilizers to countries that criticize its invasion.
In this regard, he reiterated that the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies on Russia do not in any way prevent the sale of these products and said that his country works daily with its interlocutors to make this clear and that there is no fear of continuing with these imports. “The decision to turn food into weapons is Moscow’s and Moscow’s alone,” she emphasized.
In his response, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya denied Blinken’s allegations. Regarding the alleged blockade of food in cities such as Mariupol, besieged for weeks, Nebenzya assured that there is “an enormous amount of evidence” that it was members of the Ukrainian battalion, Azov, who took the food and that the Russian army provided aid. humanitarian.
The Russian representative also rejected the idea that the invasion of Ukraine is aggravating the hunger crisis, as the UN itself guarantees, claiming that he has been talking about this problem for more than two years, long before the start of the war.
Nebenzya said the situation is a result of Western policies and regulations, which have caused supply chain problems, speculation in food markets, rising transport and insurance costs, and generally high inflation.
The Russian ambassador also highlighted as part of this problem “the abrupt transition to green energy imposed on the whole world” and the sanctions against Russia, which despite not directly attacking exports of food or fertilizers, slow down sales because buyers prefer act with extreme caution.
Regarding the blockade of the Black Sea, Nebenzya assured that his country is trying to guarantee commercial traffic in the area and that it is Ukraine that has been mining the waters and refuses to cooperate to allow the movement of ships.
Furthermore, he implied that grain exports from Ukraine to Europe by other routes, such as rail, are intended to pay for the arms delivered to him and have nothing to do with fighting hunger.
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