Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has officially stated that Washington is provoking a food crisis in Ukraine by depriving it of grain supplies. US President Joe Biden's statement on the need to find opportunities to export 20 million tons of grain from Ukraine coincided with the signing of the law on Ukrainian "land lease." It turns out that Kyiv will pay for weapons with wheat, "she said. Ukraine is one of the largest food exporters - of grain and other agricultural products. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has blocked grain exports from Ukrainian ports in the Black and Azov Seas. According to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, most of the traditional Ukrainian trade routes have been blocked due to the Russians` blockade. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that almost 25 million tons of grain are currently in Ukrainian granaries. Ukraine cannot direct them to the world market. The head of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, called on Russia to unblock the ports of Odesa. Beasley wrote on Twitter - "400 million is the number of people in the world who Ukrainian farmers fed before the war. Zero is the number of people fed by Ukrainian farmers today if the ports of Odesa are not opened immediately. " As for the land lease, the story began on April 7, when the US Senate approved the bill. On April 28, the US House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming majority a bill to supply arms to Ukraine under the land lease program by an overwhelming majority. On May 9, US President Joe Biden signed the document. And the next day, May 10, during a speech at the White House on the US government's efforts to combat inflation, Joe Biden drew attention to 20 tons of grain blocked in Ukrainian storage facilities through Russia. According to him, Ukraine is trying to find ways to bring grain to the world market, which would reduce global food prices. Under normal circumstances, the export of this grain would have started long ago, but Russia's aggression hinders this, the US president emphasized. "We are working with our European partners to bring this food to the world market, and it could help lower prices. But it is difficult - again - because of the invasion of Putin and Russia in Ukraine, " Biden said. He noted that the consequences of the pandemic and Putin's war affect not only the American market but have the global scale. "That's why we're seeing historic inflation in countries worldwide," Biden said. US Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Kristina A. Kvien explained that the land lease program is a mechanism that allows the US president to supply weapons quickly, writes "Yevropeyska Pravda." Contrary to its name (the word lend means "to borrow," to transfer temporarily), we are not saying that Ukraine should return everything it receives under this mechanism. The idea of ​​a lease is different. When the United States sells or transfers weapons to another country, the government must go through an export procedure, obtain approval, and meet certain restrictions. And in order not to face these restrictions, it is proposed to transfer weapons by lease. Frankly, this is just a procedure to speed up the supply of weapons. Therefore, of course, the land lease will not lead to the emergence of any crazy debt in Ukraine after the war, " she said. Consequently, we are not talking about any calculation of grain for weapons. But the fact is that the cause of the food crisis is Russia's war. Especially since, on May 21, Biden signed a law providing $ 40 billion in aid to Ukraine, including $ 20 billion in armaments.