US accuses Putin of halting food exports & distorting facts with propaganda amid war

Russian President Vladimir Putin is preventing food from being shipped and “aggressively using his propaganda machine” to deflect or distort the responsibility, claimed US State Department on Monday. In a Twitter post accompanied by an infographic, the US agency stated that the Kremlin leader is halting the food exports from Ukraine and is blaming other parties because he is hoping that it will get the world to “give in” to him. According to the department, Putin is aiming to end the sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its military aggression in Ukraine. 

US State Department said, “President Putin is stopping food from being shipped and aggressively using his propaganda machine to deflect or distort responsibility because he hopes it’ll get the world to give in to him and end the sanctions. In other words, quite simply put, it’s blackmail.”

The US floated the latest allegations against Russia just a couple of days after Ukrainian President  Zelenskyy accused Kremlin of holding Africa “hostage” by blocking wheat deliveries and driving the spike in food prices on the continent. While addressing the African Union leaders on Monday, Zelenksyy noted that the Russia-Ukraine war might “seem distant” to Africa, however, the conflict has led to rising food prices. 

The Ukrainian President also said that Kyiv is holding “complex multilevel negotiations” to end Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports and allow the export of millions of tonnes of grain. However, he said, “there is no progress yet. ... That is why the global food crisis will continue as long as this colonial war continues”.

Zelenskyy said, "This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But catastrophically, rising food prices have already brought it home to millions of African families."

Russia refutes accusations, blames West’s sanctions

Russia, however, has categorically denied all accusations of blocking Ukrainian grain exports levelled by the West and Kyiv. Instead, Moscow blamed the sanctions imposed by the West in the wake of the invasion. Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has termed Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian wheat “a real war crime”.

Borrell told the EU diplomats in Luxembourg on Monday, “It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tons of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world, people are suffering (from) hunger”. Moreover, the EU’s foreign affairs chief addressed Russia’s claims regarding Western sanctions, he said that “it’s not the European sanctions” that are “creating this crisis.”

Image: AP