Russia says only 3 percent of food exported from Ukraine under a deal that allowed its grain shipments to resume has gone to the world’s poorest countries.
It says Western nations have received half.
Russia said in a statement “the geography of the recipients of these cargoes has turned out to be completely inconsistent with the initially declared humanitarian objectives,”.
It said “needy states such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan have received just 3 percent of the food, mostly from the World Food Programme,”.
Since the signing of the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative in July in Turkey, several million tonnes of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soya have been exported from Ukraine.
However, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have since complained there are serious problems with the deal, raising fears that Moscow could block those exports unless its demands are met.
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