Sub-Saharan Africa
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Russia's New Regions Ready to Supply Grain to Africa, Says Crimean Deputy Prime Minister

Crimea became a Russian region following a referendum in March 2014. The referendum was held after the February Euromaidan coup in Ukraine. Four new regions in Donbass and North of the Black Sea, namely Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson, followed suit and rejoined the Russian Federation in 2022.
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Crimea and the new Russian regions can supply grain and fertilizers to African countries, said the permanent representative of the Republic of Crimea under the Russian president, the region's deputy prime minister Georgy Muradov.
"Our African friends have a great need for our products. Crimea and the new regions of the Russian Federation, our old historical Black Sea regions, are producers of grain, fertilizers, chemical industry products," Muradov said at a press conference in the press center of the Rossiya Segodnya media group.
According to him, the issues of export organization should be worked out.
Watch: How Did Crimea Become Russian Again?
Last July, Russia withdrew from the Turkey and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed Ukrainian grain shipments during the past year, since the deal's component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled and most of the supplies were going to rich European countries rather than poor African nations.
However, at the second Russia-Africa Summit in July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to deliver 200,000 tonnes of free humanitarian grain relief to six African countries recognized by the World Food Program as being in need due to conflict, climate change, and other factors.
Thanks to this initiative, Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Somalia and Zimbabwe received much-needed help.