Zelensky: "Blockade of Ukrainian ports is a training for potential aggressors"

Other states may see the naval blockade as an acceptable instrument of pressure on their opponents if Russia does not receive punishment for the blockade of Ukrainian ports, said President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPC).

According to the president, the blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russian forces can be a role model for other potential aggressors who want to conquer neighbors or seize their territory.

"If Russia manages to go through this with impunity in the war against Ukraine, other states will see that the naval blockade is a supposedly permissible pressure instrument in the modern world. Consequently, none of the trade routes at sea and no country will be safe after that," Zelensky said.

He said that many countries would run out of last year's harvest in July, and in the fall, world food markets may face a crisis similar to one that happened last year in the energy sector in Europe.

Now, Ukraine stocks 22 million tons of grain, but world prices have already risen due to the impossibility of its export. Zelensky noted that this would later affect the cost of other food. Governments of food-exporting countries already have to cut exports of agricultural products from their countries to keep domestic prices from rising and protect their local consumers.

"According to the UN, this year, the world's hunger will additionally affect about 40-50 million people. I consider such an assessment conservative. Hunger does not come by itself. It is always accompanied by political chaos, which further aggravates the situation, destroys social life, and creates even more dangerous conditions for ordinary people," Zelensky said.

THE NEED FOR UKRAINIAN GRAIN

Before the full-scale Russin war, grain from Ukraine helped feed 400 million people worldwide. Now, the supply chain is broken, as the sea export route is inaccessible due to the blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Russian forces.

Before February 2022, Ukraine exported more than 6 million tons of grain through the Black Sea routes monthly. Now, due to the seaports blockade, Ukraine has redirected exports via rail and road, but they have lower capacity. For example, only 617 thousand tons of products were exported by rail in April.

The UN says that the blockade of Black Sea ports by Russian forces could provoke a global food catastrophe that will lead to world hunger, mass migration, and political instability.