As part of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine, the Russian navy’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports prevented some 20 million tons of Ukraine’s grain to be exported to needy countries, despite the fact that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme issued the following alarming warning: “an all-time high of up to 49 million people in 46 countries could now be at risk of falling into famine or famine-like conditions, unless they receive immediate life and livelihoods-saving assistance”.
On 22 July 2022, during an official ceremony at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure Olexandr Kubrakov and Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu signed the Black Sea grain agreement. This deal, brokered and backed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stipulated that there would not be any attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to allow the export of Ukraine’s grain and avert a global food crisis.
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