MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Moscow is ready to supply grain to all countries in need but the West’s restrictions impede these efforts, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

"Russia is ready to supply its grain to all countries in need but - we would like to reiterate it and we do hope that this information will get through to the final consumer - it is the West that is preventing these efforts as it seeks to achieve its political and commercial goals by restricting foreign ships from entering Russian ports, barring Russian vessels from receiving maintenance services at foreign ports and creating insurmountable obstacles in the field of insurance and banking transactions," Zakharova pointed out.

The situation in Ukraine and the large-scale sanctions that the United States and the European Union imposed on Russia have disrupted grain supplies, raising the risk of a food crisis in a number of countries. Wheat and corn prices have risen significantly since the beginning of the year. A UN Security Council meeting on May 21 revealed that global wheat stocks would last for only ten weeks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that the global food crisis, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and miscalculations by Western countries, had broken out long before the launch of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. According to the Russian top diplomat, the current situation exacerbated the problem and Western sanctions became one of the main reasons for food supply disruptions.