Russia will not be able to repeat, or how Ukraine has already saved 20 million people in the world from hunger

Exclusive. On November 23, the Third International Summit on Food Security, which brought together world leaders, ministers, representatives of international organizations and leading experts, was held in Kyiv under the auspices of the humanitarian program "Grain From Ukraine". The summit was held on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine, which was organized in 1932-1933. leadership of the USSR in order to break the Ukrainian national resistance.

Memorial to the victims of the Holodomor

According to various estimates, at least 3,9 million people died of hunger in Ukraine. In 2006, the Ukrainian parliament declared the Holodomor an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The Holodomor has already been recognized as a genocide of Ukrainians in 31 countries. "The father of the Genocide Convention", Dr. Raphael Lemkin, who coined this term, said in 1953 that the "annihilation of the Ukrainian nation" is a "classic example of genocide."

The humanitarian program initiated by Ukraine in November 2022 was a response to Russia's demands to turn hunger into a weapon on an international scale, blocking Ukrainian exports of agricultural products. Food prices in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and other African countries directly depend on whether Ukrainian agricultural companies will be able to operate normally. How soon the normal stability of the food market will be restored depends on when and how quickly the Ukrainians will be able to clear the fields of mines.

In total, during the operation of the "Grain from Ukraine" program, about 20 million people managed to be saved from hunger - and this is only thanks to one humanitarian program. "Today, important figures, important volumes are heard here, according to which the most important thing is the real lives of people: children, families in different parts of the world. And it is not only Europe, of course, it is very important for us. This is both Africa and Asia - the whole world. These are countries that we really helped. Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in particular.

In total, Ukrainian food exports provide 400 million people in 100 countries of the world. "Precisely, food — butter, corn, wheat — is recognized as the main one in the structure of export flows. We deliver products to more than 100 countries for more than 400 million people. These are mainly the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa. In the medium-term perspective, there is every opportunity to double the volume of agricultural exports and provide food for up to 600 million people worldwide," Prime Minister of Ukraine Dmitry Shmyhal noted in his turn.

The presidents of Switzerland, Estonia, Costa Rica, Lithuania, the prime ministers of Iceland, Cape Verde, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland, Croatia, Sweden, Japan, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab Cooperation Council also addressed the participants of the summit. Among the speakers were the First Lady of Belize, members of government from more than 25 countries and representatives of leading international organizations, including the UN World Food Program, FAO, UNICEF, UNCTAD, USAID and others. European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechovsky, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Lithuania Laura Ramanauskaite, Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium for Ukraine Jan de Pauw, Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece for Ukraine Spyridon Lambridis arrived in Kyiv for the summit.

"The event serves as an important platform for promoting international cooperation in ensuring the delivery of food to countries suffering from hunger, as well as discussing ways to overcome global challenges in the field of food security," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported after the summit.

A separate topic of the event was Russia's ongoing aggression, which caused significant losses to the agricultural sector of Ukraine and had a catastrophic impact on the global food market. The participants of the summit emphasized that targeted attacks on port infrastructure and grain warehouses, blocking of grain supplies are fraught with the food security of millions of people around the world. Despite these challenges, Ukraine remains a key guarantor of global food security, creating alternative logistics corridors and calling for international solidarity against the use of Russian hunger against civilians.

According to the results of the summit, the participating countries announced further financial support for the "Grain from Ukraine" program in the total amount of about $44 million. "The Third International Summit on Food Security noted the critical need for global unity to overcome hunger, create sustainable food systems, and prevent the use of food as a weapon," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine noted.

Ukraine, which suffered from the Holodomor in the 20th century, remains one of the world's food security donors. Russia will not be able to repeat using hunger as a weapon.

Vera Perovskaya