Italy asks Russia to release Ukrainian grain

Complicating export is the heavy mining of Ukrainian ports.An estimated 22 million tons of grains are sitting in silos in Ukraine.Di Maio was hosting a conference of Mediterranean governments and international organisations on the world food crisis.

Italy is demanding that Russia release grain from Ukrainian silos to ease the global food crisis, saying the continued blockade of Ukraine's ports “is sentencing to death millions of children, women, and men, far from the battleground”.

Speaking at a conference in Rome on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also warned that increased food insecurity in the developing world will trigger political instability and migratory flows.

Many countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Somalia, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, import much of their grain from Ukraine.

Drought and high fuel prices even before the war in Ukraine already threatened food availability for many developing countries.

Di Maio described the following weeks as crucial. “I want to say clearly that we expect a sign from Russia because blocking exports of wheat means holding hostage and sentencing to death millions of children, women, and men far from the battleground.” Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted most of that flow. Complicating export is the heavy mining of Ukrainian ports.

An estimated 22 million tons of grains are sitting in silos in Ukraine.

Di Maio was hosting a conference of Mediterranean governments and international organizations on the world food crisis. He spoke alongside the head of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Qu Dongyu.

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