Europe 1 with AFP 10:22 p.m., June 16, 2022

France is helping Romania to transit the large quantities of cereals blocked in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron said Thursday in an interview with TF1.

The Head of State deplored the absence of a "framework" allowing them to leave through the Black Sea because of the Russian blockade.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France was helping Romania to transit the large quantities of cereals blocked in Ukraine in the absence of a "framework" allowing them to leave through the Black Sea because of the Russian blockade. .

"We will continue the diplomatic showdown against Russia, with the UN Secretary General, to use the port of Odessa as a maritime exit door for seeds (corn, wheat...)" which are blocked", explained the French president on the private television channel TF1, questioned in kyiv.

>> READ ALSO

- War in Ukraine: what to remember from Emmanuel Macron's visit to Kiev

Romania could "constitute a kind of liaison point"

But "because Russia refuses", "we are working on another way, which is to go through Romania", Odessa being only "a few tens of kilometers" from the Ukrainian-Romanian border.

Because "this would make it possible" to be able to access in particular the Danube and the railways " in order to transport these cereals to international markets, according to him.

Romania, where Emmanuel Macron paid a visit on Tuesday and Wednesday before going to kyiv, is "in the process of making the investments" to "constitute a kind of liaison point", from which "we can much more quickly and massively than we do today to export these cereals".

France "will help it with our experts, our soldiers, our companies", added Emmanuel Macron.

>> READ ALSO

- Ukraine: the amount of blocked cereals could triple by autumn, Zelensky alert

A visit which aimed to "protect" France

Without reaching an agreement so far, the UN has been negotiating for several weeks with Moscow, kyiv and Ankara, military guarantors of the use of the Black Sea for civilian ships, an agreement that would allow cereals to leave Ukraine safe and the fertilizers produced by Russia to return to the international market.

If an agreement were reached, it would bring down food prices and alleviate the world food crisis, which is worsening due to the Russian invasion.

On TF1, Emmanuel Macron stressed that his trip to kyiv, criticized by the opposition three days before the second round of legislative elections, was thus aimed "to protect our country", because "the prices of petrol, gas and races which are increasing, it is linked to this conflict, to the choices that are made every day by Russia to play with the raw materials at its disposal to make them rise and put pressure on us".