The TASS news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that Russia had suspended participation in the Ukrainian grain export agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to limit countries that can receive shipments under the agreement, sponsored by Turkey and the United Nations, and allowed the resumption of Ukraine’s grain exports, which had been suspended since the outbreak of war last February.
Earlier on Friday, Russia said the poorest countries get only 3 percent of food exports under a U.N.-brokered deal to move grain from Ukrainian ports, and that half of the shipments go to Western countries.
Moscow said in a statement: “It turned out that the geographical location of the countries receiving these shipments is completely inconsistent with the previously declared humanitarian goals.”
“The most needy countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan and Afghanistan received only three percent of the food, and most of it came from the World Food Program,” she added.
Since Russia and Ukraine signed up to the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative, Ukraine has exported millions of tons of corn, wheat, sunflower, barley, rapeseed and soy.
The Russian president and Russian officials complained about the existence of problems in the agreement, which raised fears that Moscow would withdraw from it unless its demands were fulfilled.
Western officials familiar with the grain talks said any supplies to world markets from Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, would ease the crisis.
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