MOSCOW – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grouchko warned France on Tuesday against “unacceptable” arms sales to Ukraine during a meeting with French Ambassador to Moscow Pierre Lévy.
“Attention has been drawn to the unacceptability of continuing to pump Ukraine with Western, including French, weapons used by the Kyiv regime to bomb civilian facilities and infrastructure,” the Kremlin Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a press release.
The two men also discussed “progress in implementing the grain agreement and problems in ensuring food security”, the statement added, referring to agreements signed by Moscow and Ukraine which allowed grain to leave Ukrainian ports.
An agreement signed at the same time allowed Russia to export agricultural products and fertilizers despite Western sanctions against Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.
The “need to lift illegal sanctions against Russian producers of grain and fertilizers, as well as to remove obstacles to the saturation of markets in developing countries in order to avoid serious humanitarian consequences”, underlines the press release.
The Kremlin criticized the grain deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, saying its own exports had suffered.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that most shipments arrive in Europe rather than poor countries where grain is most needed.
On Tuesday, Putin accused the European Union of preventing 300,000 tonnes of Russian fertilizer from reaching the world’s poorest countries.
