NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday praised Turkey’s role in extending the agreement to ship grain across the Black Sea.
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At the “Grains of Ukraine” summit hosted by the capital, Kyiv, Stoltenberg referred to the Holodomor tragedy, in which “the Soviet regime forced millions of people to starve to death on Ukrainian soil between 1932 and 1933.”
He accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine and creating more unrest in the world, welcoming the efforts of NATO allies and the European Union to transport foodstuffs from Ukraine by land.
“I particularly welcome the support of Turkey, our NATO ally, to expand the Black Sea Grains Initiative in cooperation with the United Nations,” Stoltenberg added.
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He pointed out that he saw the grain ships in the Bosphorus Strait when he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul recently.
He explained that those ships had been supplied from Ukrainian ports to ship food, grain and fertilizers to the vulnerable around the world.
On November 17, President Erdogan announced the extension of the grain agreement for 120 days, starting from the 19th of the same month.
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On July 22, Turkey, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, which were suspended last February due to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
