Pope Francis on Sunday called on Russia to renew the agreement to export cereals across the Black Sea, considering it "a great offense to God" to wage war on these raw materials.

"I appeal to my brothers, to the authorities of the Russian Federation, so that the Black Sea initiative can be restored and the grain can be transported safely," Francis said at the end of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square, quoted by Lusa.

The Pope once again asked for prayers for the martyred Ukraine "where war destroys everything, even grain" and considered that "this is a great offense to God, because grain is his gift to feed humanity, and the cry of millions of hungry brothers and sisters rises to heaven".

On July 17, Moscow suspended the agreement to export grain across the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports, initially signed in July 2022 with the mediation of Turkey and the UN.

It said it was doing so because it was unable to export its cereals and fertilizers, its bank payments were blocked and its assets abroad were frozen.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on Russia to resume implementation of the Black Sea agreements and urged the world community to remain united in efforts to find effective solutions, during the opening of the UN Food Systems Summit last week in Rome.

Reacting to Pope Francis' "important" appeal this Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media to recall last week's attacks by Russian forces on port facilities used by Ukraine to export grain, both on the Black Sea and on the border with Romania on the Danube River.

"The reaction of the world's religious leaders to the terror of Russian missiles and the destruction of Ukrainian agricultural products is extremely important in order to protect the whole world, and especially the peoples of Africa and Asia, who suffer most from the threat of hunger, from a food crisis," Zelensky said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The Ukrainian President also said that "Ukraine is and will be the guarantor of world food security" and that "the main thing now is to stop Russian terror and fully implement the Formula for Peace" proposed by Kiev.

In the same message after his homily in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis harshly condemned human trafficking, calling it "a crime that turns people into merchandise".