Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that if elected president he would ban Ukrainian grain exports through the country's Black Sea ports to protect local farmers.

Bucharest plays a key role in Ukrainian exports amid Russia's threats to Black Sea maritime trade, shipping some 29 million tonnes of Ukrainian produce, the Kyiv Independent reported.

"In recent years there has been a policy of favouring Ukrainian grain in terms of access to port facilities to the detriment of Romanian grain and Romanian farmers have been badly affected by this," Ponta said.

In 2024, Romanian farmers asked the government to advocate restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, protesting the economic consequences of the free trade agreement, which raised concerns about unfair competition and risks to domestic production. However, the presidential candidate said he would support other measures already in place to support Ukraine, including the transit of weapons and the training of Ukrainian pilots.

Ponta said Romania could defend neighboring Moldova in the event of a Russian attack, but could not do so for Ukraine or any other country.

In light of President Donald Trump's foreign policy turnaround, Ponta said he supports the "radical change" taking place in the United States.

Romania's presidential election is scheduled to be held again on 8 May, after the scheduled November vote was cancelled due to allegations of Russian interference in favour of far-right candidate Calin Giurgescu.

He has been banned from taking part in the presidential re-run.

Victor Ponta, 52, was Romania's prime minister from 2012 to 2015, representing the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He resigned following public outrage over a deadly nightclub fire. | BGNES