Africa's food supplies are precarious at the best of times but the conflict has turned everything on its head. Photo / AP
Africa's food supplies are precarious at the best of times but the conflict has turned everything on its head. Photo / AP
The US has warned drought-stricken African nations that Russia is attempting to sell them stolen grain, presenting them with a choice between feeding their population or endorsing war crimes in Ukraine.
Officials in Washington last month alerted 14 mostly African countries that Russian cargo vessels were leaving ports filled with looted Ukraine food.
The diplomatic cable, first reported by the New York Times, highlighted concerns over the possibility of a global food crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, said on Monday that as much as 75 million tons of grain would be stuck in his war-torn country by the end of autumn.
His intervention came after a visit to the frontline in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where fighting over the key city of Severodonetsk has further intensified.
"Right now we have about 20-25 million tons blocked," Zelenskyy said. "In the autumn that could be 70-75 million tons."
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has been repeatedly accused of weaponising food supplies in order to put pressure on the West to ease its sanctions on Moscow.
Before his invasion, Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest supplier of grain, with many African nations reliant on its exports for food.
But a Russian naval blockade of the country's Black Sea ports have seen exports frozen.
Africa's food supplies are precarious at the best of times but the conflict has turned everything on its head.
A woman walks past sacks of wheat flour piled high in the Hamar-Weyne market in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia in May. Photo / AP
Before the war, Ukraine and Russia supplied about 40 per cent of Africa's wheat and about 80 per cent of the world's sunflower oil trade.
The pressure led to Macky Sall, the head of the African Union and the president of Senegal, to call for Western sanctions on Russia to be eased, after he met with Putin in Moscow last week.
Hassan Khannenje, the director of the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the NYT that many African countries were unlikely to hesitate before buying Russian-supplied grain, no matter where it comes from.
"This is not a dilemma," he said. "Africans don't care where they get their food from, and if someone is going to moralise about that, they are mistaken."
Meanwhile, Russian forces were accused of attempting to desperately wipe eastern cities off the face of the earth as the Kremlin was unable to break down fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor of the eastern Luhansk region, said on Monday that fighting in the area had further intensified, with the city on the brink of becoming another Mariupol.
Luhansk fighting has 'increased tenfold'
In an update posted on the Telegram messaging app, the official said Russian shelling on the city and neighbouring Lysychansk had "increased tenfold".
Zelenskyy travelled on Sunday to the frontline city of Lysychansk, the closest he has come to the fighting since Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv region in March.
Just 10km across the Siverskyi Donets river is Severodonetsk, which has been the scene of a weeks-long battle between Ukrainian and Russian fighters.
The Kremlin has poured vast resources, including troops and equipment, into its effort to capture the city, the last under Ukrainian control in the eastern Luhansk region, which is one half of the Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) listens to combat report close to the front line in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 5. Photo / AP
Kyiv's troops launched a number of successful counterattacks on Russian-held positions last weekend, forcing Vladimir Putin's forces out of Severodonetsk's city centre.
"The fighting is very dynamic," Haidai said.
"Half of the city was recaptured during the counteroffensive, but we are now holding positions in the industrial zone."
"Now the Russians are leveling Severodonetsk and Lysychansk to the ground," Haidai added.
He said if Russians couldn't capture territory they would leave nothing for Ukraine's armed forces to defend.
Zelenskyy's visit to the frontline, only his second official trip outside the Kyiv region since the war began on February 24, involved a perilous journey.
While officials refused to offer significant details of how the Ukrainian president had reached Lysychansk, the road, one of Ukraine's main supply lines, into the city is known to be littered with artillery and mortar craters.
Videos posted on his personal Telegram channel showed Zelenskyy, dressed in his trademark olive military shirt, in Lysychansk and Soledar, which have both been targeted by frequent Russian shelling.
"We brought something to the military," he said. "We brought confidence."
In London, Estonia's prime minister said Western leaders should stop trying to help Putin save face with "premature" ceasefire calls.
Kaja Kallas said some European leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, "need more convincing" of the threat posed by Russia.
"Talking about off-ramps and saving face: Putin can save his own face by going back to Russia, because [Russian troops] are in a sovereign country," she said.
