railways. we start with the war in ukraine, and russia is denying that its invasion has caused a global food crisis, despite the fact that we ve seen soaring wheat prices driven by the collapse of ukrainian exports. its foreign minister, sergey lavrov, is in the turkish capital, ankara, for talks with his turkish counterpart mevlut cavusoglu. on the agenda creating a potential sea corridor for ukrainian agricultural exports. throughout the war, russia has been blockading black sea ports, including odesa. 20 million tonnes of grain is now stuck there grain many countries are reliant on. but mr lavrov says the onus is on ukraine to demine the waters around them, which were laid by ukraine as part of its defence. here s mr lavrov. to resolve this problem, we need one thing for the ukrainians to allow access to their ports, either by demining or the provision of safe corridors. nothing more is required. ukraine wants proper assurances that any safe, demined pathway wouldn t
are not under sanctions, but there are investments there. insurance, they re there. the financing finance operations to pay for that grain are. so first, before we export anything, those things have to be lifted and the arrangements made. then, on the ukrainian grain, we said long time that that it is not our fault that the coastal waters near odesa and other ports in the south of ukraine were mined by the ukrainians. if they do demine it, then if we are ready to provide safe passage for their vessels to go and to export their grain. if you re in the uk, you can watch the full interview with the russian ambassador to the un on iplayer. and outside the uk, you can watch it on bbc world news the times are on your screen now. wheat exports are at the centre of this because, until the conflict, russia and ukraine accounted for a third of global wheat supplies
ukraine itself exported up to 6 million tonnes of grain every month. but in recent months, that volume has fallen to abouti million tonnes. before the war, 90% of ukraine s exports left via deep ports in the black sea, which can load tankers large enough to travel long distances and still make a profit. but these routes are now closed and the main port of odesa remains blocked. more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in ukraine, awaiting shipment, and ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskiy said this could rise to 75 million by the autumn. we know that this year s harvest is due in a matter of weeks the bbc has been hearing from the president of the ukrainian grain association. our farmers aren t happy and people on sub sahara especially they unhappy as well. they have no access to the food and about a0 million people theyjust blocked and ukrainian
railways. we start with the war in ukraine, and russia is denying that its invasion has caused a global food crisis, despite the fact that we ve seen soaring wheat prices driven by the collapse of ukrainian exports. its foreign minister, sergey lavrov, is in the turkish capital, ankara, for talks with his turkish counterpart mevlut cavusoglu. on the agenda creating a potential sea corridor for ukrainian agricultural exports. throughout the war, russia has been blockading black sea ports, including odesa. 20 million tonnes of grain is now stuck there grain many countries are reliant on. but mr lavrov says the onus is on ukraine to demine the waters around them, which were laid by ukraine as part of its defence. here s mr lavrov. to resolve this problem, we need one thing for the ukrainians to allow access to their ports, either by demining or the provision