Putin Talks Wheat and You will be Shocked to Know What he Knows on Ukraine Wheat!

Vladimir Putin explains his proposal to get wheat out of Ukraine and avoid a food crisis.

"First of all, there are some objective issues and I will talk about them. About 800 million tons of grain and wheat are produced annually in the world. Now we are told that Ukraine is ready to export 20 million tons. 20 million tons compared to what is produced in the world - 800 million tons - is 2.5%. But if we start from the fact that wheat accounts for only 20% of the total food supply in the world - and this is true, and this is not our data, but the UN data - this means that this 20 million tons of Ukrainian wheat - it is 0.5%, it is nothing. This is the first question.

Secondly, 20 million tons of Ukrainian wheat is considered a potential export. To date, and US officials also say that today Ukraine could export six million tons of wheat (but according to our Ministry of Agriculture, it is not six [million tons], it is about five million tons, well, let's say it is six) and, this is the data of our Ministry of Agriculture, seven million tons of corn. We understand that this is not a lot. In the current agricultural year - 2021-2022 - we will export 37 million tons, and in 2022-2023, I think we will raise the amount of this export to 50 million tons. But this is just for the record, by the way. Speaking of Ukrainian grain export, we do not hinder it. And there are several ways to export grain. The first one is as follows. Surely, you can export [grains] through the ports that are under Ukrainian control, mainly those in the Black Sea basin - Odessa and nearby ports. We have not mined the port accesses, it was Ukraine that did it. I have informed all our colleagues on multiple occasions: demining, and then the ships loaded with grain will be able to leave the ports. We guarantee their peaceful and smooth passage to international waters. There is no problem. They should clear the locality and retrieve the ships from the bottom of the Black Sea that were deliberately sunk to complicate the entry to these southern Ukrainian ports. We are ready to do this, we will not use the demining procedure to launch any attack from the sea, as I have already said. This is the first issue. The second one.

There is another possibility: the ports of the Sea of Azov - Berdyansk, Mariupol - are under our control, and we are ready to ensure the smooth export of Ukrainian grain through these ports. It is not a problem. We have already carried out and are finishing the demining procedure - Ukrainian troops heavily mined it back in the day - the process is coming to an end. We will create the necessary logistics. Of course we will. This is the second option. The third. It is possible to export grain from Ukraine across the Danube and through Romania. The fourth option. It is possible [to export grain] through Hungary. The fifth option. It is possible [to export the grain] through Poland. Yes, there are certain technical problems, because the gauge is different and the bogies have to be changed. But it's a matter of a few hours, that's all. And finally, the easiest thing is to export [grain] through the territory of Belarus. This is the easiest and cheapest way, because [the grain goes] immediately to the ports of the Baltic States, to the Baltic Sea and beyond - anywhere in the world. But in this case, it is necessary to lift sanctions on Belarus. But this is not our problem. In any case, the President of Belarus, Mr. Lukashenko, raises the following question: if someone wants to solve the problem, if it really exists (the export of Ukrainian grain), he is welcome, the easiest way to do it is through Belarus. Nobody is stopping them. So there is no problem with the export of grain from Ukraine."

"Well, we will ensure peaceful passage, we will ensure the safety of the approaches to these ports, we will ensure the entry of foreign ships and their movement along the Azov and Black Seas in any direction. By the way, today there are many foreign ships trapped in Ukrainian ports, dozens of ships. They simply keep them locked there and, by the way, the crews are still being held hostage."