Ukraine to set up mechanism to supply food to Syria, Zelenskiy says

Kyiv/Moscow | Reuters — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he had instructed his government to set up supply mechanisms to deliver together with international organizations and partners food to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ukraine has been one of the world’s top grain and oilseeds exporters, and has been exporting wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria. Russia is the main supplier of wheat to Syria.

Syria imported food from Russia during the Assad era, but Russian wheat supplies have been suspended amid the uncertainty and payment delays, Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday. Two vessels carrying Russian wheat for Syria failed to reach their destinations.

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Disruption in supplies could cause hunger in the country of over 23 million people.

“We are ready to assist Syria in preventing a food crisis, particularly through the humanitarian program ‘Grain from Ukraine’,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

“I have instructed the government to establish food supply mechanisms in cooperation with international organizations and partners who can help.”

Ukraine’s exports were buffeted by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, which severely reduced shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade and revived exports from its southern ports of Odesa.

CHECHNYA READY TO SUPPLY WHEAT

Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said he is ready to step in if necessary and ensure that Syria gets the wheat it needs in what he said was the unlikely event that Russian wheat supplies to the country were disrupted.

In a message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Kadyrov said that the two rerouted vessels had been carrying “commercial” wheat and that Russian state-backed supplies to Syria had not been affected.

“Even if for some impossible and incredible reasons this does happen, I, as the head of the Chechen Republic, am ready to take responsibility and ensure the necessary amount of wheat for Syria,” Kadyrov wrote.

Kadyrov did not specify how he would organise and finance wheat supplies to Syria if he had to step in and where the wheat would come from.

But he said he could act, if necessary, via a charitable fund named after his late father which helped to rebuild some mosques and provided humanitarian aid to Syria during ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

Russian analysts estimate Russia’s exports to Syria at 300,000 tons so far this season, with the country ranking 24th among buyers of Russian wheat. They estimate Syria’s total wheat imports at about 2 million tons.

Sources told Reuters the two sides are in contact regarding supplies.

— Reporting by Olga Popova, Gleb Bryansk, Tom Balmforth and Lidia Kelly