Russia selling stolen grain, US tells Africa

Drought-afflicted nations face choice to condemn war crimes in Ukraine or feed their populations

The United States has warned African nations that Russia is trying to sell them stolen grain, presenting them with a choice between not feeding their people and endorsing war crimes in Ukraine. Officials in Washington last month alerted 14 countries that Russian cargo vessels were leaving ports filled with looted Ukrainian food. President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that as much as 75million tons of grain will be stuck in the country’s ports by the end of autumn.

‘Right now we have about 2025 million tons blocked. In the autumn that could be 70 to 75 million tons’

‘Africans don’t care where they get their food from ... if someone is going to moralise about that, they are mistaken’

THE US has warned drought-stricken African nations that Russia is attempting to sell them stolen grain, presenting them with a choice between not feeding their populations and endorsing war crimes in Ukraine.

Officials in Washington alerted 14 mostly African countries last month that Russian cargo vessels were leaving ports filled with looted Ukraine food.

The diplomatic cable, first reported by The New York Times, highlighted the mounting concerns over the possibility of a global food crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said yesterday that as much as 75million tons of grain will be stuck in his war-torn country by the end of autumn.

Hemade the intervention after a visit to the front line in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where fighting over the city of Severodonetsk has further intensified.

“Right now we have about 20-25million tons blocked,” Mr Zelensky said. “In the autumn that could be 70-75 million tons.”

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has been repeatedly accused of weaponising food supplies in order to put pressure on the West to ease its sanctions on Moscow.

Before the invasion in February, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest supplier of grain, with many African nations reliant on its exports. However, he sustained Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has resulted in exports being frozen.

Before the war, Ukraine and Russia supplied about 40 per cent of Africa’s wheat and about 80 per cent of the world’s sunflower oil trade.

Macky Sall, the head of the African Union and president of Senegal, called for Western sanctions on Russia to be eased, after he met Mr Putin in Moscow last week.

Hassan Khannenje, director of the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The New York Times that many African countries were unlikely to hesitate before buying Russian-supplied grain, no matter where it actually comes from.

“This is not a dilemma,” he said. “Africans don’t care where they get their food from, and if someone is going to moralise about that, they are mistaken.”

Meanwhile, Russian forces were accused of attempting to wipe eastern cities off the map amid Kremlin frustration at being unable to break fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor of the eastern Luhansk region, said yesterday that fighting in the area had further intensified with the city on the brink of becoming another Mariupol.

In an update, posted on the Telegram messaging app, the official said Russian shelling on the city and neighbouring Lysychansk had “increased tenfold”.

Mr Zelensky travelled on Sunday to the frontline city of Lysychansk, the closest he has come to the fighting since Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv region in March.

Just six miles across the Siverskyi Donets river is Severodonetsk, which has been the scene of a weeks-long battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces. The Kremlin has poured vast resources into its effort to capture the city, the last in the eastern Luhansk region of the Donbas to remain under Ukrainian control.

Kyiv’s troops launched a number of successful counter-attacks on Russianheld positions last weekend, forcing Mr Putin’s forces out of Severodonetsk’s city centre.

“The fighting is very dynamic,” said Mr Haidai. “Half of the city was recaptured during the counter-offensive, but we are now holding positions in the industrial zone.”

He added: “Now the Russians are levelling Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.”

Mr Haidai said that if Russia couldn’t capture territory it would leave nothing for Ukraine’s armed forces to defend.