Various European leaders have travelled to Kiev to take part in a conference held to mark the launch of the ‘Grain from Ukraine’ scheme, which aims to help ensure the safe passage of food exports from Ukraine to developing nations.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these supplies have been disrupted, causing food insecurity in numerous developing nations, particularly in Africa. Speaking at the event, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky explained that under the plan, 60 ships will be able to set sail carrying Ukrainian grain headed to nations such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Congo.
During the conference, Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the country participating in the scheme, and thanked the politicians who had travelled to Kiev to take part, which included the prime ministers of Poland, Belgium and Lithuania, as well as the president of Hungary.
The event coincided with the 90th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ukraine, a genocide which took place during the Soviet Union between 1932-1933, in which the policy decisions of the authorities led to deaths of millions of Ukrainians. With this in mind, Zelensky drew a direct comparison between 1932 and 2022, saying that “we must make it impossible for Russia to treat food as a weapon”.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland, spoke to Polsat News about his attendance at the event. He stated that “Europe is a confluence of several tectonic plates [and therefore] every war in this area affects others. These conflicts are not local, they can trigger many changes on a global scale”. He also referred to how among the many victims of the Great Famine caused by the USSR in Ukraine were 100,000 Poles who lived in the Ukrainian SSR at the time.
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