Russia’s UN ambassador left a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday in protest.
The reason was a speech by EU Council President Charles Michel, in which he accused Russia of using suspended food supplies to the third world as a weapon in the war in Ukraine and a way to see relief in the sanctions.
Michel addressed directly to UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia when he said that Russian warships in the Black Sea that prevent Ukraine from exporting grain have caused a global crisis.
– It drives up food prices, drives people to poverty. Russia is solely responsible for the impending food crisis.
“Rude”
Michel went on to accuse Russia of stealing grain from the territories it occupies in Ukraine, while “blaming others” for “cowardly” propaganda.
It was too much for Nebenzia, who left her seat in the hall. His deputy, Dmitry Polyansky, later wrote on Twitter that Michel had been “rude”.
The meeting of the Security Council was supposed to be about sexual abuse during the war in Ukraine, but several aspects of the war were raised.
In May, the United States accused Russia of deliberately exacerbating the global food shortage as part of the invasion war against Ukraine.
– Stop blocking the ports in the Black Sea, said Foreign Minister Antony Blinken then.
“Extortion”
On Monday, he repeated those words and said in a meeting within the Foreign Ministry that there is credible information that Russia steals Ukrainian grain in order to export it itself, and thus profit from the war.
Blinken also accuses Russia of stockpiling grain to drive up prices and accuses President Vladimir Putin of blackmail.
– He hopes that the world will give in and ease the sanctions. It’s blackmail, quite simply.