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May 25, 2022

World Food Programme Calls on Russia to Lift Ukraine Blockade to Allow for Grain Exports
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The war in Ukraine is now in its 91st day. Russia is facing growing
calls to end its blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea that is
preventing Ukraine from exporting grain. David Beasley of the U.N. World
Food Programme condemned the blockade.

David Beasley: "Well, to keep the ports closed as the harvest season is
now coming in in Ukraine in July and August, it means a declaration of
war on global food security, if you can't get the food out the fields. I
mean, Ukraine grows enough food to feed 400 million people. In a time on
planet Earth where we were facing an extraordinary food crisis before
Ukraine, fuel costs, commodity prices, shipping costs were already
doubling, tripling, quadrupling."

Earlier today, a top Russian official said Moscow would consider
allowing for a humanitarian corridor for ships carrying food to leave
Ukraine, but only if the West agreed to lift some of its sanctions on
Russia.


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