We went through very terrible things.
Zelensky: Kyiv raised around $150m to export grain to vulnerable countries
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hosted a summit in Kyiv yesterday to promote its “Grain from Ukraine” initiative to export grain to countries most vulnerable to famine and drought.
The Ukrainian leader said the plan demonstrated that global food security was “not just empty words” for Kyiv. The Kremlin has said that Ukraine’s Black Sea exports during the war have not been reaching the most vulnerable countries.
Zelensky said Kyiv had raised around $150 million from more than 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
“We plan to send at least 60 vessels from Ukrainian ports to countries that most face the threat of famine and drought,” Zelensky said.
The summit was attended in-person by the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary. Germany and France’s presidents and the head of the European Commission delivered speeches shown by video.
Announced by Kyiv earlier this month, the initiative is in addition to a UN-brokered deal that has allowed some Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea, a vital route for the major wheat producer’s exports that had been blocked.
Flanked by his chief of staff and prime minister yesterday, Zelensky said the Grain from Ukraine initiative aimed to demonstrate that for Kyiv global food security is “not just empty words. This will be one of the biggest contributions to global stability a real and very necessary step” he said.
Zelensky also vowed that Ukraine would continue to resist Russian attacks, as the country marked the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine that affected millions of Ukrainians under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
‘We cannot be broken’
“Ukrainians went through very terrible things … Once they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now — with darkness and cold,” Zelensky said in a video posted on social media. “We cannot be broken,” he added.
The Polish and Lithuanian prime ministers were in Ukraine for talks that could in particular focus on a possible new wave of migration from Ukraine this winter.
Ukraine’s Border Guard Service said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was in Kyiv and “honoured the memory of the Holodomor victims” at a memorial in the Ukrainian capital.
Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was also in Kyiv on his first visit since Russia launched attacks.