U.S. on blocking grain deal: Putin holds the world’s hungry hostage

Alternate Representative of the U.S. for Special Political Affairs in the UN Robert Wood made such a statement at a meeting of the UN Security Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The American diplomat called on Putin to stop the practice of holding the world's hungry people hostage. He also called for expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative and ensuring its full implementation.

He emphasized that Russia daily obstructs and threatens to suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which raises food prices around the world. This means higher prices for everyone, especially for poor and middle-income countries, as well as for the UN, which also buys food on the world market.

The U.S. representative pointed out that Russia has deliberately slowed down the pace of ship inspections and significantly reduced the amount of grain exported from Ukrainian ports for the needs of the most vulnerable countries. Wood said that in recent weeks, the Russian delegation has repeatedly refused to inspect ships at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

The American diplomat emphasized that now Russians are threatening to stop cooperation on May 18. Russia is blocking the supply of Ukrainian grain to feed the hungry, while successfully exporting its huge grain harvest.

As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said at a Security Council meeting that Russia pretends to have suffered losses from the Black Sea grain initiative, although it has actually doubled its grain exports.