Published October 30,2022
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Due to the new blockade of grain exports by Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Russia to be expelled from the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies in the world.
Zelensky was reacting on Saturday evening to Russia's decision to suspend the agreement on grain exports through Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
"Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Vietnam - these and other countries could suffer from a further aggravation of the food crisis that Russia is deliberately provoking," Zelensky said in his evening video address.
"Why can a handful of people somewhere in the Kremlin decide whether there will be food on the tables of people in Egypt or Bangladesh?"
What is needed, he said, is a strong response from the United Nations, but also from the G20 group of major industrialized and emerging countries. "Russia does not belong in the G20," Zelensky said.
Since September, Russia has been delaying the inspections - carried out jointly with the UN, Turkey and Ukraine - of ships passing through the Bosporus, where 176 ships with about 2 million tons of grain are stuck in a traffic jam.
Russia justified the withdrawal from the agreement with drone attacks on ships of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol on Saturday morning, for which it held Ukraine responsible. Moscow spoke of an act of terrorism.
The next G20 summit is due to take place in mid-November on the island of Bali in Indonesia. According to the Kremlin, it has not yet been decided whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend.
