US challenges world to tell Russia to stop using Ukrainian grain as `blackmail’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is challenging all countries to tell Russia to stop using the Black Sea and Ukraine’s grain as “blackmail” and stop treating the world’s hungry and vulnerable people as leverage in its “unconscionable war.” America’s top diplomat lashed out at Russia at a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday for ignoring the world’s appeals and pulling out of the year-old deal that allowed Ukraine to ship more than 32 tons of grain from Black Sea ports to needy countries. He said Russia’s response has been “bombing Ukrainian granaries, mining port entrances, threatening to attack any vessel in the Black Sea.”