Zelensky: Complex negotiations are underway to open Ukrainian ports

While some countries, especially in the African continent, are suffering from a food crisis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that “difficult negotiations” are underway to lift the Russian blockade in the Black Sea on Ukrainian ports, as millions of tons of grain cannot be exported to Africa.

No progress yet

And he stressed in a video speech in which he addressed the members of the African Union, “there is no progress so far,” adding that “the food crisis in the world will continue as long as this war continues.”

Zelensky’s comments come after the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, stressed today, Monday, that Russia must be “accountable” if it continues to block the export of Ukrainian grain to the world, describing the matter as a “war crime”.

“One cannot imagine that millions of tons of wheat are stuck in Ukraine, while people in the rest of the world suffer from hunger. This is a real war crime,” he added in Luxembourg at the start of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, noting that the consequences of the war were very serious for him. for Europe and the world.

May ease the severity of the crisis

A deal that would allow the export of grain and fertilizer would lower food prices and ease the global food crisis.

It is noteworthy that, shortly after the start of its military operation on the territory of the western neighbor on February 24, the Russian forces imposed their naval control over the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea, besieging the ports in the south of the country, which usually exported grain, especially wheat and sunflower oil, across the Black Sea, which led to a rise in Prices globally, amid fears that a number of countries in the Middle East and Africa will be affected.