The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced the purchase of Ukrainian wheat worth tens of millions of dollars for the UN program to combat hunger in poor countries.

In a statement, the USAID administrator explained that the 150,000 tons of wheat, worth $68 million, will be purchased and shipped to countries suffering from "severe hunger and malnutrition" in the Horn of Africa, an area affected by a historic drought.

Samantha Power also said that while this is a step in the right direction, "much more is needed" to help the world recover from the "global devastation caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal war."

The grain will be delivered to countries in need through the UN World Food Programme.

The US Secretary of State took the opportunity to call on all countries around the world to increase humanitarian and development aid, as well as to support food security efforts and ease trade restrictions.

"Working together, we can ensure global food security," said Antony Blinken.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is expected in Ukraine this week for a trilateral meeting with the President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The meeting will take place Thursday in the city of Lviv. The next day, Guterres will visit Odessa and its port, which is being used for the export of Ukrainian grain under an agreement promoted by the organization itself and Turkey.

Later, the UN leader will travel to Istanbul to visit the Joint Coordination Center overseeing the pact's compliance, explained his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric.

According to Dujarric, Guterres will travel to Ukraine at Kiev's invitation and part of the trilateral meeting with Zelensky and Erdogan is expected to focus on reviewing the operation of the initiative that allowed the unblocking of grain exports across the Black Sea.

In addition, the UN Secretary-General plans to hold a bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian President, at which he is expected to discuss the general state of the conflict, the need for a political solution and other issues, such as the situation in Zaporijia and attempts to deploy an international expert mission to assess the nuclear power plant on the ground.

Source: Lusa