Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary to let Ukrainian grain cross their territory because Russian attacks have almost halted exports from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, The Cattle Site reported, citing Reuters and Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar.
Magyar, who agreed with Zelenskiy at talks on Friday to reset relations between the two countries, told the private broadcaster RTL that Hungary would have no objection as long as the cargoes only transit to other destinations. "He mentioned to me during our one-on-one meeting that it would help them a lot if they could transport maize in sealed trains to Western Europe," Magyar said. "I said as long as it merely transits the country, there would be no obstacle."
The transit would be modelled on the arrangement used shortly after Russia's February 2022 invasion, when neighbouring countries let Ukrainian grain pass at the start of the war. Ukraine is among the world's top producers of wheat, maize and sunflower seed, and around 90% of its exports of such crops go through the Black Sea.
Magyar, who succeeded Viktor Orban, has taken a less confrontational line towards Kyiv, though he has said Hungary will not send arms to Ukraine and has demanded progress on the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority there.
The request comes as Europe's own maize crop is weak. In late August the European Commission forecast the EU maize harvest, usually its second-largest cereal crop, at 50.1 million tonnes, a near two-decade low and about a fifth below the average of the past three years, after record heat and drought hit farmers in France and Hungary especially hard.
Photo: National Police of Ukraine / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Source: The Cattle Site
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