Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is celebrating a small victory in war-torn Ukraine for the United Nations, which has been crippled by vetoes acting on Russia’s invasion of that country.

While visiting Lviv in Ukraine, Guterres on Thursday declared that the agreement to allow the export of Ukrainian foodgrains “reflects a victory for diplomacy.” 

It will help “vulnerable people in every corner of the world”, he told reporters in Lviv, noting that global “wheat prices dropped by as much as eight percent following the signing of the agreements”.

Because Ukraine accounts for more than ten percent of global wheat exports, more than 15 percent of corn and nearly 20 percent of barley, food prices had shot up around the world while many developing countries faced the spectre of imminent hunger.

“A record 345 million people in 82 countries are now facing acute food insecurity while up to 50 million people in 45 countries are right on the edge of famine and risk being tipped over without humanitarian support”, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

The WFP started the first humanitarian shipment from Ukraine this week sending 23,000 tonnes of wheat to countries in the Horn of Africa.

Guterres worked relentlessly for what the UN proudly calls the Black Sea Grain Initiative by getting Russia, Ukraine and Turkey to create a safe passage for ships to resume Ukraine’s foodgrains exports.

The arrangement reached last month also increased the profile of Turkey’s President Recept Tayyib Erdogan, who has emerged as the interlocutor between Russia and Ukraine and whose country plays a key role in facilitating the exports through its Straits of Bosphorous.

Guterres, who met with Erdogan and President Voldomyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Lviv on Thursday, saw the diplomacy behind the grain initiative as a road map for ending the war. 

“The parties have worked professionally and in good faith to keep the food flowing”, he said while appealing to them “for this to continue overcome all obstacles in a spirit of compromise and permanently settle all difficulties”.

“In less than one month, 21 ships have departed from Ukrainian ports and 15 vessels have left Istanbul for Ukraine to load up with grain and other food supplies”, Guterres said. 

“As we speak, more than 560,000 metric tonnes of grain and other food produced by Ukrainian farmers is making its way to markets around the world”, Guterres said.

He is scheduled to visit the port in Odessa, which had been attacked by Russia, to see for himself the resumption of exports.

The agreement came after every effort at the Security Council on Ukraine – to even condemn the invasion – was vetoed by Moscow showing up the UN’s impotence on a matter of global importance and boosting scepticism about the UN’s relevance.

While the General Assembly has condemned the Russian invasion, unlike the Council it is powerless to act on it.

The attacks on Ukrainian ports and the mines in the Black Sea from the conflict had blocked foodgrains exports from that country, imperilling the global food situation.

Under the Black Sea Initiative agreements, the ships carrying foodgrains are monitored by a Turkey-based Joint Coordination Centre with the participation of the UN and the three countries.

(SAM)