Add to the U.S. list of crimes against humanity being perpetrated on Ukraine by Russia the deliberate delay of Ukrainian grain shipments to other parts of the world. Deals arranged last year by the U.N. and Turkey provided for grain shipments to depart from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea after inspections by Russian officials. Shipments of wheat, barley and other foods from Ukraine account for a major part of the world's food supply, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, so the delay will be impacting those areas of the world:
"The amount of grain leaving Ukraine has dropped even as a U.N.-brokered deal works to keep food flowing to developing nations, with inspections of ships falling to half what they were four months ago and a backlog of vessels growing as Russia’s invasion nears the one-year mark. [snip]
Under the deal, food exports from three Ukrainian ports have dropped from 3.7 million metric tons in December to 3 million in January, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. That’s where inspection teams from Russia, Ukraine, the U.N. and Turkey ensure ships carry only agricultural products and no weapons. [ed.: it's absurd on its face that Ukraine would ship weapons out of their country, so this is purely harassment].
The drop in supply equates to about a month of food consumption for Kenya and Somalia combined. It follows average inspections per day slowing to 5.7 last month and 6 so far this month, down from the peak of 10.6 in October.
That has helped lead to backups in the number of vessels waiting in the waters off Turkey to either be checked or join the Black Sea Grain Initiative. There are 152 ships in line, the JCC said, a 50% increase from January." (our emphasis)
The shipping agreements are up for renewal next month, and we can only imagine the extreme position thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin will take to punish Ukraine, even at the expense of causing famine in Africa and elsewhere. African and Middle Eastern nations need to speak out strongly against Russia's use of food as a weapon, rather than stay silent, or, in the case of South Africa, hold joint naval exercises with them and China. Their antipathy toward their colonial rulers of the last century needs to be set aside for now to focus on the damage that the dangerous, fascistic imperial aggressor in Europe is doing to their food supply. In the meantime, the U.N., Turkey and the Western allies need to bring more pressure to bear on the Kremlin for their delay tactics which will cause more people to die beyond the borders of Ukraine.
(photo: UNOCHA/Levent Kulu A joint civilian inspection team comprising officials from the Russian Federation, Türkiye, Ukraine and the United Nations visited the merchant vessel Razoni on 3 August 2022)
