Putin urges UN to increase deliveries of Ukraine's grain to poorest countries

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday urged the UN to increase deliveries of Ukraine's grain to the poorest countries.

"From 80 ships that left Ukraine's ports, transporting grain, 32 stayed in Türkiye, and I think it is totally normal because Türkiye is a country-organizer of this process and undoubtedly has the right for it.

"Three were sent to South Africa, three to Israel, seven to Egypt, 30 to the European Union, and only two to the poorest countries under the UN food programs, these are Yemen and Djibouti. This is only 60,000 tons and only 3%," he said.

Putin noted that the Russian side cannot influence the grain distribution but in general Moscow's position that it would be right to increase deliveries to the poorest countries.

For its part, Russia supplied 6.6 million tons of grain to the world market in May-August, with 6.3 million tons to the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, he added.

Russia plans to supply another 30 million tons of grain by the end of the year and is ready to increase this figure to more than 50 million tons as this year's harvest is good, he said.

As for fertilizers, Russia exported 7 million tons this year, and 3 million tons were shipped to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Putin welcomed the EU decision to lift sanctions that were imposed on the export of Russian fertilizers, but criticized the comments on this decision, which specify that deliveries are only allowed to the European countries.

He said such a situation discriminates against Russia's partners in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to address this problem.

The president said that about hundreds of thousand tons of Russian fertilizers were stuck in the European ports because of sanctions.

"Our producers are ready for free transfer them (fertilizers) to developing countries, which are in dire need of these fertilizers," he said.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement on July 22 in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which were paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February. A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN has been set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.