The USA spoke at the UN for the expansion of the Grains Agreement

The United States spoke at the UN for the expansion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. According to the country’s government, Russia is using the Grain Agreement to achieve its goals in the war against Ukraine.

“We call on Putin to stop the practice of holding the world’s hungry people hostage. We also call for expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative and ensuring its full implementation,” said US Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador Robert Wood during a speech at the UN Security Council.

As Ukrinform writes, he emphasized that Russia is daily obstructing and threatening to suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, thereby raising food prices all over the world. This means higher prices for everyone – primarily for poor and middle-income countries, as well as for the UN, which also buys food on the world market.

The US representative also said that the Russian Federation deliberately slowed down the pace of inspection of ships and significantly reduced the volume of grain exported from Ukrainian ports for the needs of the most vulnerable countries. Wood clarified that in recent weeks, the delegation of the Russian Federation has repeatedly refused to conduct inspections of vessels at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

“Now the Russians are threatening to end cooperation from May 18. the Russian Federation blocks the supply of Ukrainian grain, which should feed the hungry, and at the same time successfully exports its huge crop of grain,” the American diplomat emphasized.