U.S.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia on Thursday of using food as a weapon in Ukraine by holding &hostage& supplies for not just Ukrainians, but also millions around the world.A senior official in Moscow later rejected the allegations, saying Russians were ¬ idiots& and would not export food while being subject to tough sanctions.Addressing the United Nations Security Council, Blinken appealed to Russia to stop blockading Ukrainian ports.&The Russian government seems to think that using food as a weapon will help accomplish what its invasion has not & to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people,& he said.&The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage.&The war in Ukraine has caused global prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer to soar.Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies.

Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn, barley, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil, while Russia and Belarus & which has backed Moscow in its war in Ukraine & account for more than 40% of global exports of potash, a crop nutrient.Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Russians were skilled at producing food needed throughout the world under the right circumstances.&Everything turns out to be illogical & on the one hand, crazy sanctions are introduced while on the other hand there are demands to supply food,& wrote Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia&s Security Council.&Things don&t work like that.

We are not idiots.&Medvedev said producing harvests required people skilled in agriculture, as well as proper equipment and fertilizer.&Russia knows how to do this,& he wrote.

&We have all the opportunities to ensure there is food in other countries, so that there are no crises.

Just don&t prevent us from working.&Russia&s U.N.

Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed as &absolutely false& any suggestion that Russia was to blame for a global food crisis that had been brewing for several years.He accused Ukraine of holding foreign vessels in its ports and mining the waters.&The decision to weaponize food is Moscow&s and Moscow&s alone,& Blinken said.&Some 20 million tons of grain sit unused in Ukrainian silos as global food supply dwindle (and) prices skyrocket.&U.N.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is trying to broker a deal allowing Ukraine to resume food exports and revive Russian food and fertilizer production to world markets.The post Blinken accuses Russia of using food as a weapon in Ukraine first appeared on Ariana News.