MEP Victor Negrescu addressed the European Commission on the measures being considered to manage the situation following the Russian Federation’s decision to halt the international agreement on grain shipments from Ukraine.

“If the question arises as to how these grains and agricultural products will reach the markets, the information that has appeared in the public space indicates that the frontline states, including Romania, will most likely be involved in this process”, said Victor Negrescu.

In this context, the Social Democrat MEP called on the European executive to quickly identify and make available additional European funds to finance infrastructure, develop green transport corridors, modernise port infrastructure and directly support farmers and affected economic sectors to prevent these circumstances from being used to promote specific Russian propaganda messages.

Russia said it stopped participating in a landmark UN-brokered agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea, just hours after Moscow announced that Ukraine had attacked the Crimea Bridge.

But the Kremlin claimed it had nothing to do with the attack on the bridge, but with the deadline for its validity coming to an end.

Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s largest agricultural producers and major players in the markets for wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil. Russia is also dominating the market for fertilizers.