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The United States and Russia traded accusations over the weekend after Moscow announced it was suspending a deal to allow safe passage for grain leaving Ukraine’s ports.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres canceled a trip on Sunday to engage in intense negotiations in an attempt to revive the deal, the collapse of which could fuel global hunger in the coming months.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials accused Russia of bad faith over the suspension, which comes as Russia’s forces continue to lose ground to Ukraine’s military.
“Any act by Russia to disrupt these critical grain exports is essentially a statement that people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Saturday.
“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started.”
President Biden on Saturday told reporters the decision was “purely outrageous” and would “increase starvation.
