Putin says he wants to limit Ukraine’s grain export destinations

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday of a looming global food crisis. He said he would discuss amending a grain export deal with Ukraine to limit countries receiving shipments.

Speaking at an economic forum in the eastern city of Vladivostok, Putin said that Moscow had done everything in its power to ensure that Ukraine could export its grain; however, problems in the global food market were likely to worsen, threatening an imminent humanitarian disaster.

He added that Russia signed the export deal in July, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, on the understanding that it would help ease rising food prices in the developing world but that it was profitable to wealthy Western countries.

“If we exclude Turkey from being an intermediary country, almost all of Ukraine’s grain exports go to the European Union, not to the poorer developing countries,” he said.

He stated that only two ships out of 87 headed to emerging countries carrying 60,000 tons of grain and accused the West of adopting a colonial line.

Putin said he would consider “limiting export destinations for grain and other food” and would discuss the idea with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who helped broker a deal to lift a blockade on exports from Ukraine’s southern ports in July.

Several senior Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have said during the past 24 hours that Moscow is not satisfied with the terms of the agreement and that the West is not fulfilling its obligations.

Moscow says it has been promised to cancel some logistical sanctions it says are disrupting its exports of agricultural products and fertilizers in exchange for easing a military blockade on Ukraine’s southern ports to allow food exports to move. However, Lavrov said on Tuesday he had not seen any steps by the West to de-escalate the situation.