United Nations, June 24 (Agency) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in favor of a “package deal” whereby grain is exported out of Ukraine and Russia simultaneously, United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.” The Secretary-General has always talked about the package deal with both exports from Ukraine and Russia at the same time,” Dujarric said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the easiest and least expensive route for grain exports is through Belarus. However, the United Nations has not talked at all about the Belarus route in the past several weeks. “The Belarus route, export through Belarus, was one of the first options the Secretary-General tried,” Dujarric said. Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Guterres’s approach is prolonging the food crisis and causing problems, especially for developing countries. Lavrov explained that Guterres initially wanted to enable exports of grain first out of Ukraine and then out of Russia.