Ukrainian wheat embargo: Russian blackmail

Cereal stocks blocked in Ukrainian ports. In total, 5 to 6 million tons of wheat and 15 million tons of corn are stuck in warehouses and waiting to be exported. But impossible to go by sea, and the other routes do not allow the goods to be sold quickly. Russia and Ukraine account for a third of world wheat exports.

And with production stuck in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has every intention of using cereals as leverage. He says he is ready to export more wheat subject to the lifting of sanctions and the cessation of arms deliveries to Ukraine. “He knows very well that it is on these arms deliveries that part of the outcome of the battle depends”, confides Pierre Verluise, doctor in geopolitics and director of Diploweb. The Maghreb countries are much more dependent on Russian deliveries, at the risk of food riots.