Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned this in a video clip handle to the TRT Globe Forum, which is getting held in Istanbul, in accordance to an Ukrinform correspondent.

“Now we have additional than 13 million tonnes of agricultural items [already] exported, and we can give tens of thousands and thousands more tonnes. Our ports associated in the export grain initiative are operating at only half capacity. And this is only due to the fact Russia is slowing exports, retaining ships ready for inspections. As of these days, a lot more than 80 ships are ready,” Zelensky explained.

He explained that due to the fact of this, hundreds of hundreds of individuals around the globe obtain much less meals, pay back much more for food, “for the reason that just one state is blackmailing every person with food items.”

“The typical ready time for vessels is 3-5 months. Since of this, 2-3 million tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural merchandise are not exported each individual thirty day period,” Zelensky stated.

He said he was certain that there is possible to remedy this issue, in unique, if many directions of Russian aggression in opposition to Ukraine are removed and the protection of the Mykolaiv location and its ports is secured, which will be yet another move in the direction of guaranteeing world wide food stuff security.

Zelensky added that there would be no meals disaster in the world if the Russian fleet had not blocked Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

“The Russian war versus Ukraine showed the worth of stability in our area. This is just one of the historic errors created by the Russian chief – with his insane aggression, he only proved that the protection of Ukraine and the Black Sea region is critically crucial to international stability, and any aggression in our portion of the globe is a world criminal offense,” the president mentioned.

He famous that Ukraine, Turkey and the UN jointly quit the risk of starvation, and the Grain From Ukraine initiative allows the poorest countries manage stability.

In Istanbul on November 17, Ukraine, the United Nations and Turkey agreed to lengthen the Initiative on the Risk-free Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports for another 120 times. The initiative was released on July 22, and the first ship with Ukrainian foodstuffs still left the port of Odesa on August 1.

As a lot of as 531 vessels have exported 13.3 million tonnes of Ukrainian foodstuffs to Africa, Asia and Europe given that August 1.