Russia artificially creates queue of 150 vessels within frameworks of Grain Initiative – Zelenskyy

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2022, 20:44

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that Russia deliberately delayed the passage of ships from Ukrainian ports within the frameworks of the Grain Initiative; he said Russia artificially created a queue of 150 vessels to do so.

Source: the president's evening address

Quote: "The situation around the Export Grain Initiative is becoming more and more tense these weeks. The enemy is doing everything to slow down our food exports. I believe that with these actions, Russia is deliberately inciting the food crisis so that it becomes as acute as it was in the first half of this year.

Today, more than 150 ships are in the queue to fulfil contractual obligations for the supply of our agricultural products. This is an artificial queue. It appeared only because Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of ships."

Details: Zelenskyy named some of the states which food exports are delayed to: these are Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia.

"Our partners – the UN, Turkey and others – are fully informed about this situation," he said.

The President reported that since the Grain Initiative started working, Ukraine under-exported about three million tons of food due to Russian inhibitions, which is equal to the annual consumption by 10 million people.

"Russia is doing everything to ensure that at least hundreds of thousands of these people become forced migrants who will seek asylum in abovementioned Turkey or EU countries, or die of hunger. And we, together with our partners, must do everything so that the Grain Initiative is not only preserved, but [to see to it that it] also works at 100% capacity," Zelenskyy emphasised. 

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