Grain for Africa – “Ukraine continues to guarantee food security”

“Ukraine has been and still is the guarantor of world food security, and even under such harsh wartime conditions, the Ukrainian leadership is working for global stability,” Zelensky said at a press conference on Saturday about the visit of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. The program provides food supplies to the poorest countries. According to Zelenskyy, up to 60 ships will be sent from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports around Odessa to countries threatened by famine and drought by the middle of next year. “This is Ethiopia, this is Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria,” he said. Zelenskyy pointed out that as part of the initiative, one ship of grain would provide food for about 90,000 people.

The project is intended to complement the grain export agreement negotiated by the United Nations. Several European countries have pledged to finance the shipments under the World Food Program (WFP). For example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that a program ship sponsored by Germany is currently en route to deliver Ukrainian grain to Ethiopia.

3.8 million euros from Austria
For the initiative, Austria has pledged 3.8 million euros to supply Ukrainian grain to people in need in Ethiopia and Sudan. “Even after 276 days, Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine is not giving up on the cynical use of hunger and energy as a weapon against the Ukrainian people and the world,” Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said as part of the initiative. launched in a hybrid format in Kiev on Saturday took place. “Using hunger as a weapon has no place in this world.”

The Austrian contribution will be made available to the WFP, one million euros will come from the Foreign Disaster Fund (AKF) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will be used to contribute to the transport, processing and distribution of a Ukrainian donation of 125,000 tons of grain to countries particularly affected by the acute food crisis. In concrete terms, the amount will be used to support the needy population in Sudan. EUR 2.8 million from funds from the Austrian Development Cooperation Agency (ADA) will be made available to WFP for the purchase of Ukrainian grain for its humanitarian aid programs in Ethiopia.

“Worst food crisis in years”
In cooperation with the WFP, Germany will make an additional 15 million euros available for grain deliveries from Ukraine, Scholz said in a video statement released Saturday. “Today we agree that hunger should never be used as a weapon again,” Scholz said. “That is why we cannot accept what we are experiencing now: the worst global food crisis in years with devastating consequences for millions of people – from Afghanistan to Madagascar, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa.” Russia has exacerbated this situation by targeting agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine and blockading ports on the Black Sea for months.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to make an extra six million euros available under the World Food Program for grain deliveries from Ukraine to Yemen and Sudan. “The weakest countries should not pay the price for a war they did not want,” Macron said in a video message on Twitter on Saturday. Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine is exacerbating supply chain destabilization and threatening the world with a food crisis, Macron said. Like Ukraine, France has opted for solidarity.

Commemoration 90 years Holodomor
Hungarian President Katalin Novak personally traveled to Kiev. She pledged Hungary’s support for the initiative. People in need can always count on the Hungarians, Novak said. The “Grain from Ukraine” program was launched to mark the 90th anniversary of the devastating famine known as the Holodomor (“Murder by Hunger”). In 1932 and 1933, millions of people fell victim to the hunger crisis that Joseph Stalin targeted against the Ukraine.

The political background to the initiative includes a plan to counter Russian claims that the rich nations of the West have provoked the hunger crisis with their sanctions against Moscow. While the West has strongly condemned Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, many poor countries are hesitant to make an assessment – partly for fear of the potential consequences for their own countries. Besides Ukraine, Russia is also one of the largest grain suppliers in the world.