BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called on Russia to comply with its obligations under the agreement for Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea. “Millions of people are starving in the world, and Russia is again making the safety of grain ships available. This has to stop,” said the Green politician on Sunday in Berlin. “Whether families in Lebanon, Niger or Bangladesh can pay for their next meal must not depend on the Russian president’s war plans.”
Baerbock pointed out that dozens of ships are currently on their way to bring grain from Ukraine to other countries. “We call on Russia not to endanger the safety of these ships and to return to its commitments to the international community.” Since the agreement came into force in the summer, grain prices on the world market have finally fallen back to a tolerable level, emphasized Baerbock, referring to Ukraine.
Putin emphasizes that he is not only attacking the people of Ukraine, but the entire international community, said Baerbock in an interview with the ARD program “Report from Berlin”. The suspension of grain deliveries means “that this war will be extended again and again to countries like Somalia, Libya and other regions of the world, because the people there have already suffered massively in recent months from the fact that grain from Ukraine is not in the world could come, therefore had to suffer from hunger”.
Russia announced on Saturday the suspension of an agreement concluded in July mediated by Turkey and the UN. It had ended the months-long blockade of Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea following the Russian war of aggression. Russia justified the suspension with Ukrainian drone attacks on its Black Sea fleet on the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow has annexed in violation of international law since 2014./jbz/DP/mis