ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — Russia will not rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on July 27 during the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, Politico reported.

Russia on July 17 left the grain initiative, which had allowed for the safe passage of 33 million tonnes of grains and other foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports.

The grain initiative was brokered in July 2022 by Turkey and the United Nations, after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 had stopped exports, causing price inflation and food insecurity.

Since leaving the grain initiative, Russia has focused its attacks on Ukrainian ports and grain terminals as well as assets on the Danube River, which was providing alternate routes for grain.

Putin, who accused Western nations of receiving a bulk of the deliveries during the grain deal, said Russia would move toward a “more just system of resource distribution.”

"In the coming three or four months we would be ready to provide to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea up to 50,000 tonnes of grain each. We will ensure free shipping of these cargo," Putin said, according to Politico.

The African Union earlier on July 26 urged Moscow to reinstate the Black Sea grain deal. Without the deal, food security concerns could increase in Africa, where almost half of nations import more than a third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, according to the International Centre for Migration Policy Development.

"The problem of grains and fertilizers concerns everyone," Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who heads the 55-member African Union, told Russian state media. "We will talk about this in St. Petersburg, we will discuss it with Putin to see how we can restart this agreement."

Compared to the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019 when 43 African head of states attended, only 17 are at this year’s meeting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed “unprecedented pressure” by the US and its allies for the low turnout.