Foreign ministers and representatives from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations (G7) gathered on Germany’s Baltic coast on May 12 for a three-day meeting dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its wider impact, including on food and energy supplies.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in the Baltic Sea resort of Weissenhaus, northeast of Hamburg, that the effects of the 11-week-old Ukrainian war on grain supplies have already made it a “global crisis.”

Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, including of wheat and other grains.

Russia has blockaded Black Sea and other trade routes in and out of its much smaller post-Soviet neighbor in the conflict, in addition to causing the death of thousands and widespread destruction through a military campaign widely employing massive aerial bombardment.

Baerbock said 25 million tons of grain that could feed “millions of people around the world” was currently blocked in Ukrainian ports, “particularly Odesa,” a Black Sea city of around 1 million.

“That’s why we are discussing how the grain blockade exerted by Russia can be unblocked, how we can get the grain out to the world,” Baerbock said.

In addition to its members from the world’s leading industrialized economies, the G7 invited ministers from Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, where Russia has kept around 1,500 troops for years despite Chisinau’s requests to withdraw them, to Weissenhaus.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with German lawmakers and welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government’s decisions to step up military support for Kyiv.

“We see a positive, positive dynamic,” Kuleba said, adding, “We have to make sure that this positive dynamic is maintained.”

The attendees are also expected to discuss climate change, which is another contributing factor in the mounting global food crisis, and relations with China.