Never hunger should be used as a weapon - President Vladimir Zelensky's address

The indomitable people of an unbreakable country! Today we held the First International Food Security Summit. They spent in Kiev with our partners. And consciously-these days when we honor the memory of the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Ukrainians went through genocide. And today we are doing everything possible and impossible to stop the new genocidal policy of Russia. A new, but similar to the one that killed millions of people in the twentieth century.

And we are not just reflected in aggression. We step by step create a system that will stop aggression, dismantle its consequences and guarantee long -term safety - safety of Ukraine, all of Europe and the world. Food safety is one of the key elements of global stability. This is what the leadership role of Ukraine is the most obvious. Thanks to our export grain initiative of three Black Sea ports, we have sent about 12 million tons of food to the world market. 40 countries.

Of this volume, more than 2. 5 million tons are countries that not just food shortages, but a rigid crisis. Within the UN Food Program, we helped countries in which people literally starve or on the verge of hunger. It is, in particular, Ethiopia, Yemen. We also helped Somalia and Afghanistan. And this is only the beginning. Today we have officially announced the start of our new humanitarian initiative. Grain from Ukraine.

And we have agreements with many partners about the joint work of Grain from Ukraine. EU, USA, France, Britain, Germany, Japan, Qatar, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Switzerland and others. Our food safety summit was supported by more than 20 countries. The total amount we have accumulated for Grain from Ukraine is about $ 150 million. The work is ongoing. We prepare up to 60 ships.

We all do not just send Ukrainian agro -products to those countries that suffer the most from the food crisis. We confirm that never again hunger should be used as weapons. If it were not for Ukrainian food, if it were not for our partners, then social stability in regions as North Africa or the Middle East would not have been kept. That's what Russia wanted. We have - and we can! - Do not allow it. Today, I met with Prime Minister Belgium. Discussed our joint actions. And not just for food security.

They signed the Declaration on the support of Belgium full membership of Ukraine in both the European Union and NATO. This is an important signal. They discussed further political and defensive interaction, sanctions against Russia, the ability of Belgium to help us with the passage of this winter. Today, the meeting of the Lublin Triangle at the level of the Prime Minister-Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania took place in Kyiv.

They signed a joint statement for further support of Ukraine and international law. So today is a very busy diplomatic day. A day that has strengthened both Ukraine and our partners. This day, our energy has continued to restore the system. And we have more opportunities to generate and supply electricity. But unfortunately, it is not enough to make the supply completely stable. As of the morning, twice less subscribers than last night, were disconnected from electricity.

However, in 14 regions and in Kiev there are still restrictions for more than 100,000 subscribers in each of the regions. If consumption increases in the evening, the number of shutdowns may increase. This once again indicates how important it is to protect the energy and consume it rationally. This day, the enemy struck a rocket strike in Dnipropetrovsk - in the private sector, in ordinary homes. There are wounded. Donetsk, south, other regions were fired.

Russia and this day - memory day - turns a day of terror. The invaders are sure to be responsible for all this. And we will expel them from our land. And one more. Today we managed to release 12 more Ukrainians from Russian captivity. Of these, three are civilians, two are officers and seven - ordinary and sergeants. Only during this week did we return 98 of our people from captivity to Ukraine. Let us return everyone else.