(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused Russia of “deliberately” delaying the passage of ships loaded with Ukrainian grain, a vital supply for many countries in Africa and Asia.
Posted at 2:40 p.m.
“More than 150 vessels are in a queue to fulfill contractual obligations to supply our agricultural products. This is an artificial queue, which only appeared because Russia deliberately delays the passage of ships,” Zelensky said in a video.
According to him, China, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon or the Maghreb countries are among the States affected by these delays affecting “about three million tons of food”.
Russia and Ukraine had agreed in July to resume Ukrainian grain exports, halted since the start of the war, after a UN-sponsored deal with Turkey.
Russia later criticized the deal, saying its own exports were hampered by the sanctions.
The Ukrainian president also welcomed on Friday the “good results” of his army against Russian troops in the region of Kherson, in the south of the country, where Kyiv claims to have taken over dozens of localities and recovered Russian weapons.
“Thank you also to the soldiers of the 60e separate infantry brigade, whose units show good results in the Kherson region,” Zelensky said in his video, announcing the capture of more than 30 armored vehicles, a thousand tank shells and three of artillery.