(Ottawa) International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan says Russia has laid mines in Ukrainian fields to prevent farmers from growing their crops.
Updated yesterday at 7:51 p.m.
Speaking after a meeting of G7 development ministers in Berlin, Sajjan said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told them Russian troops were placing mines in fields to ruin crops.
Russian soldiers also allegedly stole Ukraine’s food stores, reminding Ukrainians of the “terrorist famine” of the 1930s when Stalin demanded available grain and food from Ukraine.
The Minister for International Development, who is traveling to Africa for food security talks, said the situation was “catastrophic” and that everything must be done to help release Ukraine’s wheat reserves to feed the developing world.
He plans to talk to his successor as defense minister, Anita Anand, about sending Canadian experts to help clear Ukrainian fields.
“I will speak to Minister Anand about this and how we and other NATO allies can help clean up some of these fields,” he said.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said during her visit to Ukraine earlier this month that she had received warnings that Russian troops had laid mines in playgrounds, parks and around homes.
He was told not to get off the sidewalk in Irpin, a suburb of the capital Kyiv, as Russian troops had buried a number of mines before withdrawing.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during the visit to Ukraine with Mr.me Joly that Canada will donate $2 million to the HALO Trust, a non-profit mine clearance organization, to help Ukraine.
Heather McPherson, NDP Critic for International Development, says Canada, which has expertise in mine clearance, should help make Ukrainian fields safe for farmers to plant and harvest their crops.
In an interview, Sajjan warned that Russia was also spreading misinformation in the developing world, blaming the West for rising food prices and shortages after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
This is deliberate, Sajjan said, to increase President Putin’s sphere of influence in Africa and other regions.
In remarks during a debate at the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday, Mr.me Joly claimed that Mr Putin, not Western sanctions against Russia, was to blame for the global food crisis.
“We have made huge progress in the fight against hunger over the past decades, but all of these gains are being reversed,” she said, due to climate change, COVID-19 and conflict.
The foreign minister said hunger and humanitarian crises were bigger than anything seen in recent years.
“More recently, we have seen how President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is directly accelerating this trend. And let’s be clear: the Russian invasion is to blame, not the sanctions,” she said.
She said the conflict in Ukraine is “the biggest shock to the world’s – already fragile – food systems in the past 12 years”.
“By attacking one of the breadbaskets of the world and seeking to cut off the Ukrainian economy, Russia is destroying Ukraine’s ability to supply the world with food,” she argued. It is blocking Ukraine’s ports, displacing farmers and workers, ravaging its agricultural lands and attacking civilian infrastructure on a large scale. »
Ukraine is one of the largest grain exporters in the world, but it is unable to export grain to its markets, including developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, following the Russian invasion.
Lebanon, Bangladesh and North African countries are among Ukraine’s biggest customers for wheat, a staple food.
Mr Sajjan said Russia’s blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa would worsen global food shortages and that there was an urgent need to “get the grain out”.
“The whole world, including Africa, needs to send a message to Putin to allow the port to open so the grain can get out,” he said. He warned that a global food shortage could fuel conflict.
Julie Marshall of the UN World Food Program said there had been sharp rises in international prices for staple foods, including wheat and maize, with soaring international fuel prices making the situation worse.
Together, Ukraine and Russia account for 30% of global wheat exports, 20% of global corn exports and 76% of sunflower supplies, according to the UN.
Mme Joly said earlier this week that Canada was preparing to send its ships to Romanian ports and other European countries to transport Ukrainian wheat to break Putin’s blockade.
Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau also discussed with her G7 counterparts food aid for the developing world, as well as aid for Ukraine.
But she warned that Canada and the United States had a lower harvest last year due to drought, so grain stocks were lower than normal.
Mr. Sajjan said that if there is not enough wheat available, Canada may be able to send supplies of other foods, including potatoes and carrots, to help countries fight against hunger.