Bulgaria welcomes the UN-supported initiative for facilitating the export of Ukrainian agricultural products across the Black Sea, President Rumen Radev said in a video address to an international conference on the opening of the Grain from Ukraine humanitarian programme aimed to mitigate the impacts of food crisis on the most vulnerable countries.  United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, heads of state and government and representatives of international organizations attended the international forum. 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv had raised USD 150 million from more than 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. “We are planning to send at least 60 vessels from Ukrainian ports to countries that most face the threat of famine and drought”, President Zelensky said.

So far, some 12 million tons of grain and foodstuffs have been transported from the three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea to 40 countries around the world. “Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet has managed to make possible the transportation of more than 200,000 tons of grain from Ukraine along the Danube in the past months”, President Radev said. “Bulgaria remains strongly committed to continuing this transport activity”, Rumen Radev said.