KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he had ordered his government to work with international organizations and partners to provide food to Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Ukraine has been one of the world’s largest exporters of grain and oilseeds, and has been selling wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.
Syria imported food from Russia during the Assad regime, but Russian wheat was stopped amid instability and late payments, Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday.
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“We are ready to help Syria in preventing the food crisis, especially through the humanitarian aid program ‘Grains from Ukraine’,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
“I told the Government to start ways to provide food in cooperation with foreign organizations and partners who can help.
Ukraine’s exports were affected by the full invasion of Russia in February 2022, which significantly reduced exports through the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken the de facto blockade of the sea and revived exports from the southern port of Odesa.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; Additioanl reporting and writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Sandra Maler)