U.S. Says Russia 'Must Stop Playing Games With Lives Of Hungry People'

Washington D.C./12.05.23/Turan:    The U.S. envoy to the UN said on Thursday called on member states to use their influence to convince Russia to renew the Black Sea grain deal as the Kremlin's deadline nears.

"The world needs the Black Sea Grain Initiative...  Russia must stop playing games with the lives of hungry people around the world," Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters during a press call organized by the State Department's New York Foreign Press Center.

According to her, the renewal of the deal is so important as the world is facing a global food crisis with more than 345 million people facing high levels of food insecurity according to the World Food Program: "This is the crisis felt most acutely in Africa in the Middle East, and especially by people in countries where food was already in short supply".

Over 30 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs have been exported from Ukraine since last August.

Moscow says it is defending "Russia's agriculture producers, producers of fertilizers." However, Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Thursday, "Russia is exporting just fine. It is exporting grain and fertilizer at the same levels, if not higher, than before the full-scale invasion."

"Russia's threats are about money and power," she went on to explain: "The more Russia obstructs Ukraine's exports, the higher prices go, and with Russian exports moving well, they are making more profits."

In Washington, State Department's deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told TURAN's correspondent during a daily briefing that it was "unfortunate that Moscow has continued to use and has continued to weaponize grain and hunger in a way that has forced the Black Sea Grain Initiative to be needed in the first place."

"It shouldn’t have been needed... But it is exactly because of this mechanism that has allowed for grain to get to the places that it has needed, including many final destinations on the African continent as well," he said.

Data from the Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center, which oversees inspections, indicates that inspections of ships headed to Ukraine and back have substantially declined from at least 3 times since last October.

"In classic form, the Russians are playing with the procedures in the Black Sea Grain Initiative," said Ambassador Jim O'Brien, who heads the State Department's Office of Sanctions Coordination.

When the Russians delay ships going into Ukraine, on average each ship costs $20,000 more a day because they have to pay the crew while they wait, they have to provide supplies and keep the ship running.

"So every day of delay raises the price, and the people who pay that cost are the ones buying the grain, not the Russians. And the food that doesn’t get out, that is all food that then is not available for the World Food Programme, for the most needy countries – again, 55 percent of Ukrainian grain goes to developing countries. That’s what Russia is stopping." O'Brien explained. "That’s why it’s so important to be clear Russia invaded a grain exporter; it then stopped its exports; under pressure, largely from the Global South, Russia allowed Ukraine to come back to markets; and now Russia is complaining that it is not making enough money from that arrangement, and so it wants it to stop."

Alex Raufoglu