Biden’s plan to get grain out of Ukraine by train: President wants to put temporary silos along the border with Europe to release 22m tons trapped by Russia
- Biden said temporary silos would be built along the EU border with Ukraine
- Move would be a bid to get round Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports
- There is a growing global food crisis described as Vladimir Putin's 'hunger plan'
- Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that temporary silos would be built along the EU border with Ukraine in a bid to help export more grain and address a growing global food crisis described as Vladimir Putin's 'hunger plan'.
Since the Russian invasion and blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, grain shipments have stalled and more than 22 million tons are stuck in silos. Ukraine says it faces a shortage of silos for a new crop.
The war is stoking prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer, which may lead to starvation in the developing world, which relies on Ukrainian grains.
Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn and sunflower oil and Russia a key fertilizer exporter.
'Russia is planning to starve Asians and Africans in order to win its war in Europe,' Yale historian and author Timothy Snyder said.
But Biden told a Philadelphia union convention that he hopes his plan can circumvent this outcome.
President Joe Biden speaking at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention in Pennsylvania (pictured) said that temporary silos would be built along the EU border with Ukraine in a bid to help export more grain and address a growing global food crisis described as Vladimir Putin's 'hunger plan'
The Banha wheat grain silos in Qalyubia Governorate, Egypt. Joe Biden has proposed building new silos on the Ukrainian border with Poland in order to freight Ukrainian grains out through Europe and avoid the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports
Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. The war is stoking prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer, which may lead to starvation in the developing world, including in Egypt and Iraq, which relies on Ukrainian grains
Bulk Carrier cargo ship Smarta in the cargo sea port of Mariupol. Since the war started, Ukraine and Russia have both laid sea mines along coastal areas and further out in the Black Sea
Finnish cargo-ship Alppila, carrying 18,000 tonnes of grain for animals from Ukraine, is unloaded at the port of A Coruna on Monday. Some 84 foreign ships are stuck in Ukrainian ports - many with grain cargoes onboard, and they fear they will be sunk by the Russian Black Sea Fleet should they try to export Ukraine's grain despite being from non-aggressor third countries
Historian Timothy Snyder believes Vladimir Putin (pictured) is preparing to starve much of the developing world as the next stage in his war on Europe
'I'm working closely with our European partners to get 20 million tons of grain locked in Ukraine out onto the market to help bring down food prices,' Biden said.
'It can't get out through the Black Sea because it'll get blown out of the water.'
Since the war started, Ukraine and Russia have both laid sea mines along coastal areas and further out in the Black Sea.
Some 84 foreign ships are stuck in Ukrainian ports - many with grain cargoes onboard, and they fear they will be sunk by the Russian Black Sea Fleet should they try to export Ukraine's grain despite being from non-aggressor third countries.
Biden said Washington was developing a plan to get grain out by rail, but noted Ukrainian track gauges were different from those in Europe, so the grain has to be transferred to different trains at the border.
'So we're going to build silos, temporary silos, on the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland,' Biden said.
Grain could be transferred from Ukrainian railway cars into the new silos, and then onto European freight cars to 'get it out to the ocean and get it across the world,' he said, adding the plan was taking time.
'This is just one of the possibly useful steps in ensuring food security. But we also need a green corridor for our ports,' Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an online post.
The Russian military stands accused to deliberately targeting Ukraine's grain production capacity, which accounts for one-tenth of global wheat exports.
Pictured: A combine harvests wheat in a field near the village of Hrebeni in Kyiv region, Ukraine. Biden said Washington was developing a plan to get grain out of Ukraine by rail, but noted Ukrainian track gauges were different from those in Europe, so the grain has to be transferred to different trains at the border
Pictured: Wheat farmers in a wheat farm outside Bashtanka, Mykolaiv region of Ukraine. Grain could be transferred from Ukrainian railway cars into the new silos, and then onto European freight cars to 'get it out to the ocean and get it across the world,' he said, adding the plan was taking time.
Pictured: A view of the damaged Nika-Tera grain terminal in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The Russian military stands accused to deliberately targeting Ukraine's grain production capacity, which accounts for one-tenth of global wheat exports
Yet there are also reports that Russia has been exporting Ukraine's grain to African countries itself, effectively profiting from selling stolen goods.
Kyiv has accused Russia of stealing up to 500,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat, worth $100 million, since Russia's invasion in February.
Many African countries are unlikely to hesitate before buying Russian-supplied grain, such is their dire need to feed their citizens.
But Ukrainian officials said the solution to Africa's food problem is greater global pressure to end the war, not purchases of looted grain.
There is a 'simple answer,' Taras Vysotsky, Ukraine's deputy minister of agriculture, said: 'Stop the fighting.'
Historian Timothy Snyder believes Vladimir Putin is preparing to starve much of the developing world as the next stage in his war on Europe.
As it stands, the Russian blockade of Ukrainian exports will result in tens of millions of tons of food rotting in silos, and tens of millions of people in Africa and Asia starving.
Yale historian and author Timothy Snyder believes Vladimir Putin is preparing to starve much of the developing world as the next stage in his war on Europe
'The horror of Putin's hunger plan is so great that we have a hard time apprehending it,' he wrote on Twitter.
'Putin's hunger plan is, I believe, meant to work on three levels. First, it is part of a larger attempt to destroy the Ukrainian state, by cutting off its exports.
'Putin's hunger plan is also meant to generate refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, areas usually fed by Ukraine. This would generate instability in the EU.'
The final and 'most horrible' level of Putin's plan, according to Snyder, is to generate a world famine as the necessary backdrop for Russian propaganda to campaign against Ukraine.
Food riots and mass death will be blamed on Ukraine by Russia's adept use of propaganda, proxy media and official cut outs, with the solution being a recognition of Russia's territorial gains and sanctions being lifted.
Ukraine's agriculture ministry on Tuesday said European countries were considering providing temporary silos to 'preserve the harvest and secure future grain supplies'.
Ukraine says the best way to get grain exports moving again is through Black Sea shipments.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is trying to broker what he calls a 'package deal' to resume Ukrainian Black Sea exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, which Moscow says had been hit by sanctions.
The U.N. has so far described talks with Russia as 'constructive.'
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