Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Russia’s Vladimir Putin had told him on Friday he was ready to enable the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis that is hitting Africa especially hard.
Sall was tweeting on social media after meeting Putin in his role as chairman of the African Union, saying President Putin has expressed his willingness to facilitate the export of Ukrainian cereals.
Russia was also ready to ensure the export of its own wheat and fertilizer, Sall said after the talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on day 100 of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sall did not say if Putin had attached any conditions to his offer. Russia has previously said it is ready to allow vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine in return for the lifting of some Western sanctions against it, a proposal that Ukraine has described as “blackmail.”
Africa is heavily dependent on grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine that have been badly disrupted by the war.
Russia’s army has seized much of Ukraine’s southern coastline and its warships control access to the country’s Black Sea ports. Yet it continues to blame Ukraine and the West for the resulting halt in Ukrainian grain exports.
Putin told Russian state TV in an interview broadcast on Friday evening that Ukraine could export grain from ports including Odesa if it cleared them of mines.
Putin said the easiest way to ship out Ukrainian grain would be via neighboring Belarus, but that would require the West to lift sanctions on Belarus.
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