Ukraine’s foreign minister pledges to boost grain exports to Africa

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has promised that his country will do all it can to send more grain to Africa, as many countries on the continent depend heavily on grain imports from Ukraine and Russia while the war between the two has disrupted global supply.

As he began his African tour this week in Senegal to marshall support for his country, Kuleba said his country would be sending “boats full of seeds for Africa”. After meeting with Senegal’s president and foreign minister in Dakar on Monday (3 October), he pledged to “do our best until the last breath to continue exporting Ukrainian grain to Africa and the world for food security.”

Senegal’s President Macky Sall, the current chairman of the African Union, has urged Russia and Ukraine to resume their grain exports despite the ongoing war.

After his two-day visit to Senegal, Dmytro Kuleba flew Tuesday to Côte d’Ivoire where he is set to meet with the country’s Vice President Tiémoko Koné Meyliet.

Many African countries depend heavily on grain imports from Ukraine and Russia. Amid market shortages, Moscow has sought to portray the West as the villain, blaming it for rising food prices. Western leaders, meanwhile, have slammed the Kremlin for waging an imperial-style war of conquest against its smaller neighbor and cynically using food as a weapon.

So far, Africa has stayed somewhat neutral on Ukraine, with some 25 African countries either having voted to abstain or did not vote at all on the United Nations resolution that condemned the war in Ukraine earlier this year. Despite these positions of neutrality, Kuleba said he wants to deepen his country’s ties to Africa. “I do not come to Africa against anyone,” Ukraine’s foreign minister said, adding that “we must strengthen our cooperation. Our future depends on the relationships we build and what happens every day.”