Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders and officials from most African countries Thursday that his nation is making every effort to avert a global food crisis despite concerns that its withdrawal from a deal allowing grain shipments from Ukraine will cause price spikes.
Putin spoke at the opening session of a two-day Russia-Africa summit attended by a sharply lower number of African heads of state and government compared with a previous summit in 2019. While discussing the halted Black Sea grain deal, he promised large no-cost shipments of grain to six African countries.
“Our country will continue supporting needy states and regions, in particular, with its humanitarian deliveries. We seek to actively participate in building a fairer system of distribution of resources. We are taking maximum efforts to avert a global food crisis,” Putin said.
Russia intends to ship up to 50,000 tons of grain aid to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic in the next three to four months, Putin said.
Without directly referring to Putin's promise, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took a swipe Thursday at donations of grain to developing nations, saying they cannot compensate for the global impact of Moscow’s cutoff of Ukrainian grain exports.
