At the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Russia was accused of provoking a “global food crisis” and raising the risk of a “famine” by launching a war in Ukraine, the “granary of Europe”.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has started this war. He has created this global food crisis. And he’s the one who can stop it,” said Wendy Sherman, the second-in-command of US diplomacy. humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
According to the US Secretary of State, “Russia and President Putin bear full responsibility for the war in Ukraine and the consequences of this war on global food security.”
France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, has warned that “Russia’s attack on Ukraine increases the risk of famine from one end of the world to the other”, with “populations in developing countries being the first to be affected”. . The French diplomat added that “Russia will certainly try to make us believe that it is the sanctions adopted against it that have destabilized global food security.”
“Hysteria” of the West
His Russian counterpart Vassily Nebenzia indeed objected that “the real reasons for the serious turmoil in world food markets are not due to Russia’s actions, but rather to the uncontrollable hysteria of Western sanctions” against Moscow.
In any case, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Essouya, has warned that the conflict in Ukraine “threatens to make things even worse in the face of major humanitarian crises, such as in Afghanistan, Yemen and Yemen.” in the Horn of Africa “.
“These countries were already struggling to cope with food insecurity, the vulnerability of their economies, rising food, fuel and fertilizer prices, which will hit hard this year and the next ‘sowing and harvesting seasons,'” Tanzania said.
The director of the World Food Program (WFP), David Beazley, as well as Wendy Sherman, recalled that Ukraine and Russia are “major producers” of cereals, together representing “30% of world grain exports, 20% of exports. corn and 75% of sunflower oil exports “.
About 50 percent of the grain we buy comes from Ukraine and fed 125 million people “thanks to it before the war,” Beazley said, warning of the “catastrophic” impact of the ongoing conflict on RDP companies.
On Friday, the European Union announced an initiative to alleviate the food and feed shortages caused by the war. The EU and the US want a multilateral commitment to restrictions on exports of agricultural raw materials.
Cereal shortages that could cause unrest and famine are feared to be rampant in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Nigeria – countries with large populations – are among the countries that make the largest imports of grain from Russia and Ukraine.
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