Blinken calls Russia's offer to supply grain to African countries for free ‘laughable’

He said this in an interview with the BBC, which was published on the State Department's website.

"None of this is a laughing matter, but it’s laughable. What Russia was proposing is – was to get grain to a half dozen countries, about 50,000 tons. The Black Sea Grain Initiative delivered 20 million tons to lower and middle-income countries. In other words, what the Russians were proposing in compensation for getting out of the agreement is a drop in the bucket of what countries were getting and what they need," Blinken said.

According to him, not only the countries that received Ukrainian grain suffered from the termination of the grain deal.

"Every country in a sense was benefiting from this agreement because having that food on world markets kept prices down. We’ve now seen since Russia got out of the agreement prices go up by 10 to 15 percent," the Secretary of State noted.

What is known about the "grain corridor" operation

On July 17, Russia announced the termination of the grain deal. In response, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it was necessary to continue using the grain corridor even despite Russia's withdrawal from the agreement.

On July 30, despite the completion of the "grain deal," three civilian cargo ships of foreign origin passed the Russian blockade in the Black Sea and anchored in one of Ukraine's grain ports in the Danube Delta.

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on August 4 that Ukraine will send ships with its own grain to wherever it deems necessary and will not ask anyone for permission.