Zelensky to deliver free grain in new initiative that will feed at least 5 million Africans

28 Nov 2022

The initiative is being launched on the 90th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s Holodomor – ‘inflicted death by starvation’ – against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has launched a major new initiative to deliver free grain to the countries – largely African – that are suffering most from the global food crisis caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Kyiv aims to supply at least 5 million Africans with grain between now and the northern spring, under its “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, the country’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told African journalists on Monday.

One to 10 ships would be dispatched per month during 2023, he said.

Twenty-six countries, mostly from the European Union and Nato, plus international organisations, had pledged almost $150-million to buy and deliver the grain free of charge to the hungriest nations “to alleviate the acute food crisis”.

“Ukraine itself is also donating money from our war-torn budget,” Kuleba said.

The first recipients would include Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Yemen and Nigeria.

In July, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brokered the Black Sea grain initiative whereby Russia agreed to lift its blockade of Ukraine’s seaports to allow its grain to be exported to the world.

About 11 million tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural products have reached the world since then. This helped alleviate the global food crisis. But observers have said grain prices still remained too high for the poorest countries. The “Grain from Ukraine” initiative is designed to help them.

Kuleba said despite going through very difficult times because of Russia’s constant missile attacks, which have plunged much of the country into darkness and left many without water, “we remain committed to maintaining Ukraine’s crucial role as food security guarantor” for the world.

He noted that Ukraine’s agricultural exports were vital for many African countries.

Before the war started on February 24, Ukraine was supplying 15% of the world’s maize exports, 10% of wheat, 15% to 20% of barley and 50% of sunflower oil.

“Russia’s blockade of our seaports has significantly worsened food insecurity in many regions.

“Russia’s cynical hunger games have put millions of people at the risk of hunger” – not only in blockading ports, but also by attacking Ukraine’s grain storage facilities and mining farmland and stealing equipment and even Ukrainian grain.”

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Despite these “terrible circumstances”, Ukrainian farmers were expected to harvest about 55 million tons of grain this year.

Since May 22 this year, Ukraine had exported 17 million tons of food abroad.

Kuleba said when he toured Africa in October he had heard that food insecurity was the continent’s main concern about the war. He had promised to address it, and he now said Ukraine was keeping its promise.

This month, Kyiv and its international partners had managed to persuade Russia not to withdraw from the Black Sea grain corridor initiative. Now it had launched the “Grain from Ukraine” humanitarian initiative. The first ships had already sailed, he said.

Kuleba also stressed that Ukraine would not deliver grain only to countries which had supported it politically. He cited the case of Ethiopia, which would be one of the first recipients even though it had not supported a recent UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kuleba noted that the UN, not Ukraine, would decide which countries received the grain. Asked if, apart from such “carrots”, Kyiv intended to use any sticks to persuade African countries to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kuleba said no. Many African countries, like South Africa, have remained studiously “non-aligned” or neutral in the war.

Kuleba also noted that Ukraine was launching the initiative on the 90th anniversary of the man-made famine of 1932-1933 when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered his troops to steal all of Ukraine’s food in order to feed Russia, starving millions of Ukrainians in the process.

“We Ukrainians are a nation which survived a genocide by starvation in the past. This genocide called the Holodomor was perpetrated by Josef Stalin 90 years ago.

“This is why feeding the world has a deep meaning to us. We know the horror of hunger and we will not allow anyone in the world to use hunger as a weapon again in the 21st century.”

The initiative was being coordinated with the UN’s World Food Programme and an international hunger prevention coordination group had been launched, including governments, international organisations and philanthropists. The group would also draft a strategy to prevent the global food crisis worsening, Kuleba said.

The number of donors and recipients would grow.

“The reason why we are doing it is a mixture of our historical experience and our firm belief that there are no crises in the world which should be considered only as local crises,” he explained.

“Some people in Africa say: ‘This war by Russia against Ukraine is in Europe. It’s not our war, we have to stay aside from it’.

“But this is not true. Because the repercussions of this war is the worsening food crisis and famine across the globe. Some people might say: ‘These are people in Africa who starve from famine or are dying because they have no bread’.

“But this is also not true. And so this is why we are there to help. We want to be helpful and we expect that others will be helpful too. This is our philosophy and this is our policy.”

Kuleba noted that “some African countries are playing the game of neutrality” in the war.

“When I hear arguments that we cannot support Ukraine because Ukraine is our friend and Russia is our friend, so we prefer to remain neutral, my question is, what are you trying to be neutral about?

“Neutral about the right of one country to attack another country? Neutral about the mass destruction of cities?

“Neutral about the deaths of civilians and atrocities committed? Every city that we liberate now from Russian occupation, we find torture rooms, we find mass graves.

“Missile attacks, the Russians claim that they only target military infrastructure … civilians die because of the Russian attacks.

“One of the devastating stories was the death of a two-day-old [child] in the Zaporizhzhia region as the result of a Russian missile attack.

“So, is this something you can be neutral to? Is everything Russia has done before or the trade you are doing an excuse for Russia to do all of this?

“If the answers of a certain government are yes to both questions, then there is something wrong with these governments.”

Kuleba added that Russia should be stopped now to make it clear to other governments that they dare not invade their neighbours with impunity. DM

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