LONDON (Reuters) – Russia mentioned on Friday it was to not blame for the worldwide meals disaster as African Union leaders met President Vladimir Putin to inform him the way it was hitting their continent.

Africa is closely depending on grain provides from Russia and Ukraine which have been badly disrupted since Russia invaded its neighbour 100 days in the past.

“I’ve come to see you, to ask you to bear in mind that our international locations, even removed from the theatre (of warfare), are the victims of this financial disaster,” Senegal’s President Macky Sall, chairman of the African Union, instructed Putin at a gathering within the Russian resort of Sochi.

In remarks that had been carried on state tv, Sall instructed him that almost all African international locations had averted condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine at votes within the United Nations.

In televised feedback, Putin made no reference to the meals disaster however spoke usually phrases of Moscow’s need to develop ties with Africa.

Russia’s military has seized a lot of Ukraine’s southern shoreline and its warships management entry to the nation’s Black Sea ports. But it continues accountable Ukraine and the West for the ensuing halt in Ukrainian grain exports.

“With a excessive diploma of likelihood and confidence, I can assume that the president will give exhaustive explanations of his imaginative and prescient of the scenario with Ukrainian grain,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters earlier than the assembly.

“The president will inform our African buddies the true state of affairs, he’ll clarify as soon as once more what is occurring there, who has mined the ports, what is required for grain to go, that nobody on the Russian facet is obstructing these ports,” Peskov mentioned.

Moscow blames the scenario on naval mines floating close to Ukrainian ports and on Western sanctions which are hitting its personal grain and fertiliser exports due to the influence on delivery, banking and insurance coverage.

Sall mentioned he had spoken to the European Union this week and mentioned all the pieces regarding meals and grain provides must be exterior the scope of sanctions.

African international locations are acutely affected by the rising disaster, which has despatched costs of grains, cooking oils, gas and fertilizer hovering.

Russia and Ukraine account for almost a 3rd of world wheat provides, whereas Russia can also be a key international fertilizer exporter and Ukraine is a serious exporter of corn and sunflower oil.

Russia has mentioned it is able to enable vessels carrying meals to depart Ukraine in return for the lifting of some sanctions towards it, a proposal that Ukraine has described as “blackmail”.