America accuses Russia of creating turmoil in grain markets, and Moscow blames Ukraine's mines

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that Russia's war on Ukraine created turmoil in the grain markets, while Russian President Vladimir Putin denied his country's responsibility for this turmoil, blaming the naval mines planted by Ukraine in the ports, and also accused the United States of raising food prices.

Vilsak indicated during a press conference in New York that there are about 20 million tons of grain stored in the blockaded Ukrainian ports, stressing that this situation will negatively affect countries in North Africa and the Middle East in particular, "which cannot bear the lack of food, which creates an additional danger." turmoil and instability in these countries.

He added, "This situation gives an opportunity to those who wish to speculate in grains and oils, which will lead to a rise in food prices everywhere."

"It is necessary to understand that stored grain is vulnerable to theft, and we have seen examples of Russians stealing grain from Ukrainian farmers," he said.

Vilsak also considered that the temporary silos on the Ukrainian border - which US President Joe Biden said last Tuesday will be built - are aimed at preventing Russia from stealing Ukrainian grain, and making sure that the country's winter harvest is not lost due to a lack of storage.

Ukraine's inability to use the huge deep-water port in Odessa due to Russia's military incursion has sent global food prices soaring and the United Nations has issued hunger warnings in poor countries that rely heavily on imported grain.

A grain terminal destroyed by Russian bombing in the port of Neka Tera, Ukraine (Reuters)

Ukraine mines and raise food prices

On the other hand, Putin said - today, Friday - that his country is not responsible for obstructing Ukraine's grain exports, and that the blame does not fall on it for the rise in food prices.

Russia has also denied the theft of Ukrainian grain.

"We are not the ones who mined the ports," Putin added in his speech at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, and said that if Kyiv removed naval mines, Russia would guarantee the safety of exports.

He also explained that Ukraine's grain shipments were insignificant at the global level.

He added that Ukraine exports about 5 to 6 million tons of wheat and a similar amount of corn, noting that this quantity is not important for the global economy.

And he considered that what really affects the rise in food prices is the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, and warned that the ban on fertilizers in particular endangers crops in the future, and also accused the United States of raising food prices by printing money and “hunting” materials food in world markets.

Putin said that Russia was ready to increase its exports of grain and fertilizer, and that it would send food exports to Africa and the Middle East.

The United Nations is trying to broker a deal to resume Ukrainian maritime exports, in exchange for facilitating Russian food and fertilizer exports, but that will need a green light from Moscow.

French pessimism

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed - today, Friday - his pessimism about the export of Ukrainian grain, and said that he did not see much opportunity in reaching an agreement with Russia at the present time to remove the grain from the Ukrainian port of Odessa, but said that there were talks to renew the railways. which connects Odessa with the Danube in Romania as an alternative.

"We have to talk to Russia about food security, and (discussions) can be justified by contacting directly the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to get the grain out of Odessa," Macron told BFM television on his way back from Ukraine.

"But I do not believe very much in this course, because I had already held talks a few weeks ago with President Putin, but he did not want to accept a UN resolution on this issue," he added.

Macron told the TV channel that options are being considered to renovate a railway route from Odessa to the Danube in Romania, which is one of the alternative routes used to export Ukrainian grain.

Under this initiative, the grain will eventually be transported to the Black Sea port of Constanta, where it can then be exported on larger ships, a diplomatic source familiar with the idea said.

A long queue of trucks loaded with grain waits to cross at the Ukraine-Moldova border area in the Odessa region (Reuters)

The Danube River and the difficulty of exporting grain

On the other hand, with Russia since the start of the war imposing a blockade on the Ukrainian sea ports, the Danube River has become an alternative route for the export of grain, as it forms the natural border between Ukraine and Romania.

At the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube, truck drivers loaded with grain are waiting for a long time.

On the other hand, the ships deployed in large numbers in Solina in eastern Romania suffer the same waiting.

This large number of ships flying different flags off Solina has never been seen waiting to arrive in Ukraine to load them with goods, after the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports - starting with the port of Odessa - paralyzed the export movement in Ukraine, which is one of the largest producers and exporters of grain in the world.

Since the beginning of the war, "only 1.5 million tons of grain have been exported via this route," former deputy head of the Odessa city council Yury Demchoglu told AFP, a tiny amount compared to the 20-25 million tons of grain stuck in Ukraine, according to the president. Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky.