Ukraine’s initiative to ship grain to Africa will get Western assist – POLITICO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday obtained prime Western officers as he formally launched a brand new meals initiative to export grain to Africa.

Zelenskyy hosted prime ministers and heads of state from Belgium, Lithuania, Poland and Hungary in Kyiv on the ninetieth anniversary of the Holodomor — the famine that Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union inflicted on Ukrainians — and formally launched a “Grain from Ukraine” initiative with governments and worldwide organizations together with the United Nations World Meals Program.

Different leaders, comparable to European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg, participated nearly.

Underneath the brand new initiative, Ukraine would ship as much as 60 grain ships subsequent 12 months to poorer international locations in Africa, the Ukrainian authorities informed the Guardian.

Ukraine first introduced the brand new initiative at a G20 assembly earlier this month with the purpose of reaching at the very least 5 million individuals by subsequent summer season.

A number of international locations in the present day introduced the quantity of their monetary assist to the initiative. Among the many backers: the U.S. ($20 million), France ($20 million), the U.Ok. ($6 million), Sweden ($9.5 million), Austria ($3.9 million), and Canada ($30 million).

Requested concerning the EU contribution to the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, a European Fee spokesperson stated that “the Fee will finance the transport of 40,000 tons of Ukrainian grain.” That new assist “comes along with the current €1 billion introduced to bolster the Solidarity Lanes, which have allowed the export of 17 million tons to date and the one method for Ukraine to export different non-agricultural items,” the spokesperson stated.