Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that “Western sanctions have exacerbated the food crisis in the world, and Russia should remain in first place in grain exports.”

Earlier in the day, Putin said, according to the Russian news agency Sputnik, during a meeting with the winners of the Leaders of Russia competition, that “isolation and genocide against the population in Donbas comes from the Ukrainian side”, explaining that “this is isolation and genocide, given eight years of military pressure.”

He noted: “We will do everything to fully restore life, and it has become normal for the people who live there,” stressing that “Russia will help Donbass so that people can live there in good conditions.”

“People there (in Donbass) for a long time – eight years – found themselves, as they say, between heaven and earth. Do you understand what the problem is? They did not have passports – neither Ukrainian nor Russian. A plane ticket to travel around Russia, they couldn’t buy a ticket, they couldn’t send their children to study, even to Russian universities.”