Thanks to the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, it was possible to save 20 million people from starvation – Zelenskyi

During the operation of the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, it was possible to save 20 million people from hunger, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said during the 3rd International Conference on Food Security “Grain from Ukraine”, Ukrinform reports.

“In general, 20 million people have been saved from starvation during the period of operation of “Grain from Ukraine”. And this is only thanks to one of our humanitarian programs. In general, Ukrainian food exports provide 400 million people in a hundred countries of the world. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest donors of food security,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

He noted that “Ukraine maintains a leadership position in ensuring global food security, despite the war.”

“I want to remind you that the full-scale Russian invasion began, in particular, with the blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Russian fleet. Russia understood very well what the consequences would be from this. They wanted it – they wanted a terrible result for the whole world, not only for Ukraine. They wanted world food prices to rise. It is not just a desire for more money and profits, but it is primarily about plans. If they can create a food disaster, then they can subjugate the people who depend on food imports,” the president said.

He emphasized that “the issue of food prices is extremely sensitive for most peoples in Africa and a significant number of people in Asia, Europe and America.”

“The question of prices is a question of stability in one or another region. That is why it is so important that we continue to be together in the protection of food security, the security of food supply routes and other critical export goods,” said the head of state.

According to him, “with the war against Ukraine, Russia showed that there are no countries in the world that are far from each other, and everything in the world is very closely connected.”

“Food prices in Libya, Nigeria, other African countries directly depend on whether farmers and agricultural companies in Ukraine will be able to work normally, on how quickly we will be able to clear our fields of Russian mines, on how quickly the usual stability will be restored of the food market,” Zelenskyi emphasized.

He also thanked the farmers who “continued to work despite the war and land mines.”

On the evening of October 9, Russian forces launched a ballistic missile attack on the port infrastructure of Odesa. According to the Ukrainian authorities, as a result of the attack, eight people were killed and some were injured. The damaged container ship Shui Spirit is the third foreign ship to have been attacked by Russia in the last four days.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Vitaliy Koval said that there were 45 containers of packaged sunflower oil on this container ship – this batch was a humanitarian cargo ordered by the UN for delivery to Palestine. According to him, despite the war, Ukraine supplies products for 400 million people in the world.

Russian troops regularly attack Odesa, particularly its port infrastructure. At the same time, the leadership of Russia denies that the Russian army during a full-scale war inflicts targeted strikes on the civilian infrastructure of cities and villages of Ukraine.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of grain.