Russia accuses EU of blocking fertilizer shipments to poor countries

The question of fertilizers has become a major concern for the UN, which believes that if the world market is not stabilized this year, there will not be enough food in 2023. Getty Images / Bernard Jaubert

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Vladimir Putin reiterates his accusations against the European Union, which he accuses of blocking 300,000 tonnes of fertilizer that Russia wishes to deliver free of charge to poor countries.

According to the head of the Kremlin, it is Russian fertilizers blocked in European ports due to Western sanctions.

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It was during a ceremony to hand over credentials to some twenty ambassadors in Moscow that Vladimir Putin renewed his accusations against Europe.

According to him, since the Istanbul agreements, the European Union has only partially lifted the sanctions against Russian fertilizers, only those which allow it to supply its Member States.

UN warns of food shortages

The authorization of access of Russian fertilizers to world markets was however one of the points of these agreements concluded in July with Ukraine, under the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey.

They enabled the lifting of the Russian blockade on the Black Sea and the resumption of Ukrainian wheat and corn exports.

But Russia complains that its own fertilizer and grain exports continue to suffer from Western sanctions.

This is the second time in less than a week that Putin has made these accusations, with no reaction from Brussels.

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Cereals, fertilizers, energy: how to avoid famine in Africa?

The question of fertilizers has become a major concern for the UN, which estimates that if the world market is not stabilized this year, there will not be enough food in 2023. Russia is indeed the world's largest exporter of nitrogen fertilizer.

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