Moscow criticized the UN Secretary General in response to the publication of a letter to Putin about the grain deal

By Rhod Mackenzie

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in violation of all agreed laws and norms of diplomatic correspondence, actually published his personal message to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says that on the last day of the implementation of the Black Sea initiative for the export of Ukrainian food, the UN Secretary General issued a press release in which, in addition to distorting the facts about the state of the grain deal, Guterres published his personal message addressed to the President of Russia. Unfortunately, the Foreign Ministry adds, the same thing happened with the previous message dated April 24 on the subject of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline.

The agency noted that it was also forced to publicly respond to this step of the UN Secretary General and state the real circumstances of the situation.

The statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the UN Secretary General gives a clear bias and preference to the Ukrainian part of the agreements concluded a year ago. “In his submission, it turns out that it was the sea transportation of 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain (mainly (more than 70%) fodder corn and to “well-fed” countries) that saved the world from starvation,” the agency reports, noting that Guterres, apparently, it does not care about Russian grain exports, most of which are wheat and which are sent to Asia (60%) and Africa (30%).

The agency cited a "passage" from the message of the UN Secretary General addressed to President Putin dated April 24 that "the resumption of operation of the Togliatti-Odessa pipeline is of critical importance in terms of world prices for ammonia and, consequently, for global food security." The Foreign Ministry also cites Guterres' words that global ammonia exports have dipped by 70%, and notes that on March 8 he visited Kyiv, where the issue of the ammonia pipeline was discussed with the Ukrainian leadership.

“The blowing up of the pipeline, which annually pumped about 2 million tons of raw materials for the production of fertilizers, enough to feed 45 million people, clearly showed both the effectiveness of the efforts of the UN secretariat to reduce the threat of hunger, and the attitude of the Kiev regime towards such efforts,” the statement says. message.

The UN secretariat is also silent about the fact that the declared decrease in the cost (by 23%) is calculated from the “shock” values of March 2022, after which prices stabilized, and in recent days they have practically not changed at all, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The agency also drew attention to the fact that both Guterres and his employees have turned a blind eye to the terrorist attacks and sabotage by Kyiv over and over again. It is emphasized that the UN Secretariat did not even find words of condolence in connection with the death of two people and the injury of a young girl as a result of the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge on July 17.

On July 12, the representative of the UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric, said that Guterres sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter on the grain deal, specifying that the message was about settlements through the Russian Agricultural Bank.

This article is based on materials published in Russian on vz.ru