Germany stands up for Ukrainian grain exports

Brussels (dpa) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has announced increased efforts to enable grain exports from Ukraine. “Hundreds of thousands of people, not to say millions, urgently need the grain from Ukraine,” Baerbock said at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels. “That’s why we’re working with all our partners internationally to ensure that the grain in Ukraine is not left to rot in silos over the coming weeks but gets to the people of the world who desperately need it.”

According to Baerbock, one option is to transport more grain by rail from Ukraine in the future. Shortly after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began, the EU already started to strengthen alternative transport routes.

In spite of international appeals to the contrary, Russia has refused to extend the agreement to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea. Ukrainian grain exports are particularly important for poorer countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Baerbock criticised the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had cancelled the grain agreement and was now bombing the port of Odessa, which she said was “not only another attack on Ukraine, but also an attack on the world’s poorest people”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine can hope for fresh far-reaching pledges of support from the European Union. At the foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell proposed that assurances should be provided to the government in Kyiv that the military training programme for Ukrainian armed forces would be significantly expanded, for example.