Ukraine, allies launch US$150M grain export plan to aid vulnerable nations

Zelenskyy said Kyiv had raised $150 million from more than 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hosted a summit in Kyiv with allied nations on Saturday to launch a plan to export $150 million worth of grain to countries most vulnerable to famine and drought.

The “Grain from Ukraine” initiative demonstrated global food security was “not just empty words” for Kyiv, he said.

The Kremlin says food exported from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports under a U.N.-brokered plan has not been reaching the most vulnerable countries.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv had raised $150 million from more than 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

“We plan to send at least 60 vessels from Ukrainian ports to countries that most face the threat of famine and drought,” Zelenskyy told the gathering.

The summit was attended in-person by the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary. Germany and France’s presidents and the head of the European Commission delivered speeches by video.

Ajoint statement issued after the summit said that since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the world had received 10 million tons fewer agricultural products than in the same period in 2021.

“This means that the food security of millions of people around the world is seriously threatened,” it said, blaming a Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports earlier in the conflict.