Latvia initiates ban on imports of Russian agricultural products

Latvian Minister of Agriculture Armands Krauze said this before the meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council on January 23 in Brussels.

"I propose to start discussing sanctions against Russian agricultural products today. There is enough food in Europe. We are self-sufficient. Any income of the Russian regime gives income to the military machine," he said.

The Minister reminded that in 2014, when Russia unilaterally banned imports of a number of goods from the EU, the countries did not take any measures in response.

"Currently, imports (from Russia - ed.) are growing. Cereals may even be stolen in Ukraine. We do not know where these products come from. That is why we would like to start a discussion about reducing food trade with Russia as much as possible and sanctions allow," Krauze said.

In his opinion, Russian agricultural products could be replaced by Ukrainian ones so that Kyiv could receive more funds for defense.

"If there are any groups of goods that are in short supply, for example, sunflower oil, there is a producer - Ukraine is very large. We can buy all the food products we import from Russia from Ukraine. We will be able to replace them and help the government of Ukraine finance this war against Russian aggression," the minister summarized.

• According to estimates by Texty.org.ua, the Russians stole over 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain, of which two-thirds was wheat and one-third was corn and sunflower. Revenue from the sale of this amount of grain over the past two years could exceed USD 7 billion.