African leaders welcome Ukraine wheat deal

The leaders of South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire have welcomed a deal signed by Ukraine and Russia allowing wheat and maize to be exported from Ukrainian ports.

It is the first major agreement involving the Moscow and Kyiv governments since the conflict began in February – and aims to bring down the high price of grain and restore supply to countries currently suffering food shortages.

Speaking in Pretoria at a news conference with his Ivorian counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, said the blockade of grain had forced African leaders to think seriously about food supplies in the future.

“Our continued reliance on massive amounts of grains from that part of the world should be seen as a risk and a real danger to African countries’ 1.3 billion people. We, therefore, need to use this conflict as a wake-up call,” he said.

President Alassane Ouattara, who is on a state visit to South Africa, insisted that Africa must be top of the list of grain recipients.

The Ivorian leader said he was pleased to see that President Vladimir Putin of Russia had decided to sign the proposal, under the auspices of the United Nations and Turkey.

“I also indicated to [Ukraine’s] President Volodymyr Zelensky that I wanted the supply to be made a priority for the African continent, because of the fragility of its economies and the social situation in many countries,” President Ouattara said.

Russian missile

Meanwhile, Ukraine has warned that deliveries would suffer adding that Russian missile strike on Odesa was a sign of more to come.

The Ukrainian military, quoted by public broadcaster Suspilne, said the Russian missiles did not hit the port’s grain storage area or cause significant damage. Kyiv said preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.

“We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a Facebook post.

According to the Ukrainian military, two Kalibr missiles fired from Russian warships hit the area of a pumping station at the port and two others were shot down by air defence forces.