ROME, May 26. /TASS/. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced Thursday that he called Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone to ask him to unblock Ukrainian ports that store grain.

"The goal [of the phone call] was to ask if anything could be done to unblock the grain in Ukrainian storages, because the food crisis that is looming and is already being observed in some African countries, will have horrific humanitarian consequences," he said during a press conference, adding that this was an attempt that may be unsuccessful.

At the same time "everyone realizes that lives of millions of people are at stake," Draghi noted.

The Italian Prime minister also added that he plans to call Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky later.

According to Kremlin press office, Putin said that Russia "is ready to make its significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis by exporting gran and fertilizers under condition of withdrawal of politically motivated restrictions from the West." According to the press office, during the phone call, the sides "discussed the situation in global food security in detail.".