Russia is 'weaponizing' food, Joly tells Commonwealth partners

Commonwealth leaders, meeting for the first time in four years, discussed food security and the risk of starvation as Canada's foreign affairs minister sought to lay the blame for the impending crisis at the feet of Russia.

"What is clear to us is that Russia is weaponizing food, and putting a toll on many countries around the world, and putting 50 million lives at risk," Mélanie Joly told reporters late Friday, while giving a recap of the first day of the Commonwealth meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

Ukraine is the world's fourth-largest grain exporter and reportedly has more 30 million tonnes of grain in storage, waiting for export. Farmers are said to be building temporary silos and are worried because the summer harvest is only weeks away.

The country's Black Sea ports of Odesa, Pivdennyi, and Mykolaiv and Chornomorsk serve as major terminals — shipping about 4.5 million tonnes of grain per month, but a Russian naval blockade is preventing movement.

A recent report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) concluded that Russia is taking advantage of transportation bottlenecks to attack Ukraine's food storage facilities.

Russian forces have attacked grain silos across the country and stolen an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes of grain from occupied regions, according to Ukraine's Defence Ministry.

The CSIS report, posted online on June 15, noted "Russia destroyed one of Europe's largest food storage facilities in Brovary, roughly 19 kilometres northeast of Ukraine's capital of Kyiv."

The subject of the Russian blockade of Ukraine grain exports will also be at the centre of the G7 leaders meeting, beginning Sunday in Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week delivered a scathing critique of the crisis, blaming the U.S. and not the Russian military actions in Ukraine for endangering food security, and rising inflation and fuel prices.

He reinforced the message in a phone call last week with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was one of the Commonwealth leaders to skip this week's meeting.

Africa is heavily reliant on Ukrainian and — to a lesser extent — Russian grain.

For those leaders who did show up in Rwanda, Joly said Canada has been clear in assigning blame for the crisis. 

"This is not the fault of the Western sanctions," she said. "This is really Putin's war of choice that is affecting food security around the world."

Ten members of the Commonwealth abstained from condemning Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in a United Nations resolution last spring.