The U.S. says Russia is ‘weaponizing’ food by halting grain shipments.
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The United States called Russia’s announcement that it would withdraw from an agreement to allow the export of grain from Ukrainian ports “outrageous” on Saturday and said Moscow was using food as a weapon.
“It’s really outrageous to increase starvation,” President Biden said on Saturday, in remarks to reporters in Delaware after he cast his ballot in the U.S. midterm elections.
“There’s no merit to what they’re doing,” he added, referring to the Russians.
His secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said Russia’s move would take an outsize toll on lower-income countries that were depending on Ukrainian products like wheat, corn and sunflower oil.
“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement. “We urge all parties to keep this essential, lifesaving initiative functioning.”
The grain deal, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, allowed commercial vessels carrying agricultural products to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea to Turkey, where their cargo would be inspected by a joint command that included officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.
Russia said on Saturday that it would suspend its participation in the deal indefinitely because Ukrainian attacks against its Black Sea Fleet’s ships and infrastructure — including drone strikes that damaged a mine-sweeping vessel in the port of Sevastopol — threatened the security of its ships involved in the initiative.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the grain deal was instrumental for global food security. “Russia should allow grain exports to reach the world’s hungry,” he wrote on Twitter.
Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, rejected what he described as “false accusations that our country is exacerbating the global food problem.”
“We cannot turn a blind eye to security issues and continue working,” he said in a statement released by the Russian Embassy in Washington. “It is unfair to condemn Russia in suspending the implementation of the deal. This happened because of the reckless actions by the Ukrainian authorities.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine asked for “a strong international response” to the halt to grain shipments, particularly from leaders of the Group of 20 nations, who are gathering in mid-November in Indonesia.
“How can Russia be among the G20 if it is deliberately working for starvation on several continents?” he asked in his nightly address on Saturday.
Mr. Biden and Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, are expected to attend the G20 summit, but it is unclear whether the two will speak with each other.
Jim Tankersley and Edward Wong contributed reporting.
— Marc Santora and Juston Jones
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