Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that “almost all” Ukrainian grain shipped under a United Nations-backed deal to alleviate a global food crisis is reaching wealthy European nations, and accused the West of bullying developing countries To deceive.

Data compiled by a joint center in Istanbul to monitor the July deal showed just over a third of the grain was shipped to European countries and another 20 percent arrived in Turkey.

It also showed that 30 percent reached “low- and middle-income countries” around the world.

More shipments are expected to arrive in famine-stricken parts of Africa and the Middle East as part of the UN World Food Program, implementation of which is just beginning.

Moscow, however, expressed growing frustration with how the deal was being applied.

A change in the deal also allowed Russia to have free access to fertilizer supplies and lifted some economic sanctions to allow it to export its own grain.

The United Nations hailed the deal as the world’s best chance to ease an acute global food crisis fueled by the Black Sea grain blockade.

But Putin said its current implementation is helping richer European countries at the expense of developing countries.

“Almost all grain exported from Ukraine is not sent to the poorest developing countries, but to EU countries,” he told an economic forum in Russia’s Pacific port of Vladivostok.

Both Ukraine and Russia are two of the largest exporters of wheat and other grains.

Putin accused European countries of behaving as “colonialists” and said they had “once again simply deceived the developing world”.

“This approach will only increase the scale of the world’s food problems,” Putin said.

“Perhaps we should consider limiting the export of grain and other products along this route?” asked Putin.

The July agreement brokered with the help of Turkey is valid for 120 days and can be automatically extended without further negotiations.

But it requires both Moscow and Kyiv to sign an extension.

Data compiled and shared with AFP on Wednesday showed Turkey getting the largest share of the grain – 20 percent – followed by Spain (15 percent) and Egypt (10 percent).

But much of the grain that reaches Turkey and some other destinations is then resold under trade deals not overseen by the Istanbul center.

A separate hunger relief effort led by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) focuses on shipping wheat and corn to Africa and other parts of the world suffering from shortages.

US officials dismissed Putin’s statements as untrue, noting that some of the grain sent to Europe was then processed for poor nations.

“Maybe the deal works better than expected and Ukrainians will benefit more than he hoped in terms of revenue to Ukraine,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“I think he could have multiple motives here. He doesn’t want to help Ukrainians, he would like to get a better deal,” she said.

The first ship chartered by the United Nations docked in Djibouti on August 30 in response to the drought in the Horn of Africa.

A second UN ship reached Turkey last week. The wheat will now be ground into flour and then loaded onto a new ship and sent to Yemen at an unknown date.

“A third vessel chartered by WFP is anchored in Istanbul today and plans to head to Ukraine to pick up another shipment of wheat,” the Istanbul center said.

Putin said he hopes “that the situation will somehow improve”.

“We will continue to insist that this whole matter of exporting grain and our food is primarily aimed at developing markets,” he said.