Borrell blames Putin for the food crisis after alerts from African countries about sanctions

BRUSSELS, June 2 (EUROPE PRESS) -

The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday for the food crisis suffered by developing countries, after African countries asked to review the collateral effects of European sanctions .

In a press conference from Jordan, where he participated in the EU-Jordan council meeting that governs bilateral relations, the head of European diplomacy insisted that the EU will support the countries most affected by the food crisis and those most dependent on Russian and Ukrainian cereals to emphasize that it is the bombings, robberies and Russian blockade that are behind the situation.

"Russian propaganda tries to convince the world that the humanitarian, food and energy crises are caused by our sanctions and it is completely false", the High Representative stressed, adding that it is the war itself and the actions of the Russian Army that aggravate the food crisis.

"We are going to do what we can, but these crises are not caused by our sanctions. It is war, the war created by a man. It is Putin's war," he reiterated to emphasize that European sanctions do not prohibit the export of food or fertilizers.

Europe estimates that between 20 and 30 million tons of grain are blocked in Ukrainian ports waiting to be exported abroad. This amount runs the risk of increasing to 60 million tons if the conflict continues and the situation is not cleared up, the Spanish politician pointed out. "If we don't solve this blockade, calculate how many loaves a day people will stop eating," he explained.

This Tuesday, before the EU leaders, the president of Senegal and current president of the African Union (AU), Macky Sall, asked for solutions for the "collateral effects" of the sanctions adopted against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, in particularly those relating to banks.

The Senegalese leader, who chaired the AU leaders' summit this weekend in Malabo, told the Twenty-seven that African countries are "very concerned about the collateral effects of the disturbances caused by the blocking of the SWIFT payment system due to of sanctions" against some Russian banks.