Ukrainian grain did not go to the starving

The destinations of ships leaving the ports of Ukraine with grain under the agreements in Istanbul on July 22 are in Western countries, and not in the starving states of Africa. This was announced on August 11 at a briefing by Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Ivan Nechaev. According to him, the range of goods is dominated not by wheat, the shortage of which in Africa and the Middle East was mentioned by Western politicians, but by corn and sunflower oil, and they are being transported to European ports. This, according to Nechaev, casts doubt on the fact that global food security really depended on the grain deal to unblock Ukrainian ports.

It was the threat of increased famine in Africa due to the lack of Ukrainian wheat in March-July that was repeatedly stated at the UN, citing the blockade of Ukrainian ports as the reason. The head of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, said in early June that hunger in connection with the situation in Ukraine threatens 323 million people. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) noted at the same time that the situation around Ukraine could increase the number of hungry people in the world by 15 million. The EU issued a report that warned of the risk of a “catastrophic famine” in North African countries due to the non-export of Ukrainian wheat, which could lead to “new waves of social protests” as well as migration to the EU.