Putin says the West is to is to blame for soaring global food prices and that Russia is not blocking Ukrainian grain exports

• President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Moscow isn't blocking Ukraine grain exports, per Reuters.
• The Russian leader added that the West is to blame for soaring global food prices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow isn't preventing Ukraine's grain exports from moving and that global food prices are soaring primarily due to Western sanctions.

"We do not prevent the export of Ukrainian grain," Putin said Thursday, per Reuters. "The Ukrainian military has mined the approaches to their ports, no one prevents them from clearing those mines and we guarantee the safety of shipping grain out of there."

The Russian leader reiterated his view that the crisis hitting global food markets isn't because of Russia, but the West.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the United Nations said the world faced an unprecedented hunger and food crisis.

"The ripple effects of the conflict in Ukraine are extending human suffering far beyond its borders, threatening global hunger on an unprecedented scale," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in a June 20 statement.

Still, Putin on Thursday downplayed the Ukraine war as having an impact on the food markets because, out of the entire world, Ukraine's five million tons of wheat stuck in the country is a comparatively small figure.

"This is a quantity which does not affect the world markets in any way," he added, noting it accounted for only 0.5% of global production.

Russia, for its part, accounts for roughly 20% of global wheat sales.