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Anti-Russian sanctions

Russia's actions can in no way affect global food problem — Lavrov

As the foreign minister noted, restrictions by the West have destroyed the convenient transport and logistics chains that have existed for many years

MUSCAT, May 11. /TASS/. Russia's actions have in no way influenced and cannot influence the global food problem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at a news conference following talks with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Bin Hamad Bin Hamood Al Busaidi.

"Our actions have in no way influenced and cannot influence the problems that have now been mentioned and that have been created solely by bans, illegal sanctions that have been imposed by Western countries," he said in reply to a question about the impact of Russian actions on the global food problem.

As the minister noted, restrictions by the West have destroyed the convenient transport and logistics chains that have existed for many years. "We believe that this is an absolutely aggressive policy in relation to the world economy, world trade and to all countries of the world," he added.

Lavrov stressed that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' recent report on food security said nothing about the negative impact of Western sanctions. "Here we were talking about the UN. The Secretary General's recent report on food and energy security issues didn't say anything at all about the enormous negative impact that Western sanctions are having on the situation. It is certainly not very relevant of a universal international organization to ignore the objective state of things and avoid a comprehensive, honest analysis," the minister continued.

Kiev's destructive actions

In addition, Lavrov noted that the Kiev authorities are not letting dozens of ships with food products out of their ports. "One particular aspect of this whole story is that the Kiev authorities are not letting out of their ports dozens of ships, including ships that are supposed to deliver wheat to various regions of the world, and have even mined the exits of these ports, which makes it impossible to withdraw these ships," the minister pointed out.

"We have repeatedly offered to organize humanitarian corridors for the withdrawal of these ships with the necessary goods, but the Ukrainian side is not cooperating, and its Western masters do not react in any way," Lavrov summarized.

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