Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called for Russia to stop using food as a “weapon” in the war in Ukraine after Moscow suspended a deal to allow for the export of grain from the embattled country.
Blinken told “Good Morning America” that the grain deal reached last year between Kyiv and Moscow allowed for the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread to get out to the world, but Russia “tore up that deal,” which many nations see as imperiling their food supply.
“Russia is hearing a demand signal from countries around the world that they need to stop using food as a weapon of war in Ukraine,” he told ABC host George Stephanopoulos.
The secretary of State said African countries have largely turned their backs on Russian President Vladimir Putin after he scuttled the grain deal and that Kenya in particular viewed it as a “stab in the back.”
“Countries that need the food most and who were getting it — more than half this food was going to developing countries — are not getting it,” Blinken said. “And what that does is, this food insecurity, it drives more war, it drives forced migration, it stunts growth, economic growth, physical growth.
“And at the same time, we have countries like Russia that are using food as a weapon of war,” he added.
Putin in late July suddenly dashed the Black Sea Grain Initiative after more than a year of operating with it intact.
The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, had allowed Ukraine, one of the largest grain exporters in the world, to export its product to Africa, the Middle East and Asia through the Black Sea.
At the time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it would suspend the deal until it gets its own food and products out to the world. Russia has complained that the deal was one-sided, but it has shipped record amounts of wheat out during the war.
Wheat commodities rose following the suspended deal and the problem could grow worse. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of targeting grain infrastructure in the war after the suspended deal.
The office for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday that Putin chatted with the Turkish leader over the phone and discussed the importance of the grain deal.
Putin agreed to visit Turkey in the near future, according to Erdoğan’s office.