Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday (September 8) backed claims by Russia's President Vladimir Putin that grain exports from Ukraine were going to wealthy nations, Reuters reports.
Putin on Wednesday said Russia and the developing world had been "cheated" by a UN-brokered Ukrainian grain export deal and he wanted to discuss amending the deal as Ukrainian exports were not going to the world's poorest countries as intended.
Speaking in Croatia on Thursday Erdogan said he wanted grain from Russia to be exported too, adding Putin was right to complain that grain from Ukraine under a U.N.-backed deal was going to wealthy rather than poor countries.
"The fact that grain shipments are going to the countries that implement these sanctions (against Moscow) are disturbing Mr. Putin. We also want grain shipments to start from Russia," Erdogan said at a news conference with his Croatian counterpart.
