Russia's agriculture minister said that Moscow has begun free shipments of grain totalling up to 200,000 tonnes to six African countries, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July.
Ships headed for Burkina Faso and Somalia have already left Russian ports, and additional shipments to Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali and the Central African Republic would soon follow, Dmitry Patrushev said in a statement posted on Telegram on Friday.
Putin had promised to deliver free grain to the six countries at a summit with African leaders in July, soon after Moscow withdrew from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.
Millions of tonnes
The deal, known as the Black Sea grain initiative brokered by Türkiye, had helped lower prices on the global market with African countries benefiting.
Under the landmark deal, more than 33 million tonnes of grain was shipped from Ukrainian ports, preventing a global food crisis.
Last year, Russia exported around 60 million tonnes of grain, according to Putin. UN chief Antonio Guterres called the promises of free grain "a handful of donations," Reuters news agency reports.
Since Russia's decision to quit the arrangement, there have been disruptions in grain supplies from Ukrainian and Russian ports.
However, Ukraine said on Friday that it had managed to ship 4.4 million tonnes of cargo including 3.2 million tonnes of grain via a new shipping corridor it established in August.
