The gathering of some 17 African heads of state (down from prior years, given US pressure and the Ukraine war) and many more senior officials from countries across the continent, comes just days after Moscow rejected renewal of the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative. 

Putin vowed the following in his keynote address to the summit: "In the coming months, we will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25,000-50,000 tonnes of grain free of charge," he said.

As regional reporting recounts, for "over a year, the grain deal allowed around 33 million tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize global food prices and avert shortages."