Boris Johnson said: "We support Ukrainians and want to help, above all with the economic recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine. I believe that Ukraine is an incredible country that has an amazing economy. We've put a lot of effort into getting the Grain Agreement started, to keep exporting Ukrainian grain from Odessa, and now we're looking for ways to help further the development of the Ukrainian agricultural sector."
Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Andriy Dikun expressed his gratitude to Boris Johnson and initiated the creation of an international fund to help Ukrainian agrarians.
"On behalf of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council I want to thank you for what you have done a great job, thanks to your efforts many leaders of other countries began to support Ukraine. Because of the war, the situation in the agricultural sector is disastrous: farms are destroyed, machinery is destroyed, animals are killed, fields are mined, and in the spring, agricultural producers who have lost everything will not be able to go into the fields. Today we need to create a global fund to restore the Ukrainian agricultural industry, which will collect finances to help specific farmers who have lost their farms. As for trust. We, as the Ukrainian Agrarian Rada, have a big advantage: we are inside the country, farmers trust us, we have more than 1000 members to lead the recovery process globally in cooperation with international partners", said the head of UAC.
The parties agreed that the food issue concerns not only Ukraine but the entire world, potential assistance to the Ukrainian agricultural sector could resemble a lend-lease.
"The world needs Ukraine to produce more food. We need more calories in Africa. This is a real problem. I will look at various possibilities, but I think it should be a project created in cooperation with other governments. We will need a general fund to support Ukrainian agriculture in hard times, but with the understanding that these funds will be paid back in the end. That is, it is a kind of lend-lease, which the Americans did during the war to help Britain and the Germans," Boris Johnson suggested.
The result of the meeting was an agreement to provide the Ukrainian side with a detailed report on the condition and priority needs of the agricultural sector and to continue negotiations.