Without the Black Sea ports, Ukraine cannot reach the level of exports it urgently needs, Kate Newton, the Deputy Emergency Coordinator for the World Food Program (WFP Ukraine), said.

The opening of the Black Sea ports is the most important way to return Ukraine to its former positions, she said. Without the Black Sea ports, we cannot even reach the level of exports that Ukraine urgently needs. However, everything possible is made - by road, rail and now by river - to get closer to the maximum result. At the moment it is about 1 million tonnes per month, while 2 million tonnes could be reached. But access to the Black Sea in Ukraine is urgently needed," Newton said at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Thursday.

She recalled that before the war, Ukraine exported up to 6 million tonnes of grain every month. According to her, in 2021, about 400 million people around the world consumed Ukrainian products.

"We need to try to empty the storage facilities across Ukraine, so we need to make sure that wheat, barley, sunflowers and everything that is growing across Ukraine can be harvested and has somehow to go," Newton said.