Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski announced on Saturday the launch of his «Grain from Ukraine» initiative, aimed at the most disadvantaged countries in Africa and Asia.
Under the program, Ukraine will send up to about 60 ships from the country’s Black Sea ports around Odessa by the middle of next year, the president announced. Specifically, the government agreed to send 125,000 tons of grain to Sudan, Yemen, Kenya and Nigeria in compliance with the president’s decree «On provision of humanitarian aid to the countries of Africa and Asia».
«Even when the country struggles with food shortages, devastated farmlands and widespread blackouts, we will never forget our role as responsible global citizens, especially after having experienced famine as a nation,» Zelenski has stated during the commemoration for the victims of the Stalinist famine in the country, Holodomor.
It should be recalled that Russia agreed to extend the Black Sea Corridor grain export agreement for another 120 days; a pact by which 11 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products have reached 38 countries.
However, some of the poorest countries were left out of the market due to high grain prices, hence this new mechanism is designed to ensure that market pressures sending grain to rich areas such as Europe can be countered.
Several European countries have already signed up to similar initiatives. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for example, has already stated that a ship from the German-sponsored program is on its way to deliver Ukrainian grain to Ethiopia.
France is also prepared to provide €6 million to help Ukraine send food to Yemen and Sudan, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced. «The weakest countries cannot have to pay the price for a war they did not want,» the leader has assured on Twitter.
