Edith M. Lederer -
The Associated Press
David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, warned Tuesday that the war in Ukraine has created "a catastrophe within a catastrophe" and will have a global impact
"exceeding what we have seen since World War II."
, because many of the Ukrainian farmers who produce a significant amount of the world's wheat are now fighting the Russians.
Beasley told the UN Security Council that food prices, already high, are skyrocketing.
His agency was feeding 125 million people worldwide before the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, but Beasley said he had to start cutting his rations due to rising food, fuel and shipping costs. .
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He also pointed to the situation in Yemen, a country devastated by war, as an example, where 8 million people had to suffer cuts in food allocation by 50%, "and now we are thinking of eliminating rations."
The war in Ukraine is turning "the world's breadbasket into rows of bread" for millions of its inhabitants, while devastating countries like Egypt, which normally gets 85% of its grain from Ukraine and Lebanon, but in 2020 only had 81 %, Beasley said.
The state of siege that the Russians impose against several cities deprives thousands of civilians of the most basic
March 18, 202202:48
Ukraine and Russia produce 30% of the world's supply of wheat
, 20% of corn, and 75–80% of sunflower seed oil.
The World Food Program buys 50% of the grains used in its programs from Ukraine, the official said.
The war will increase the agency's monthly expenses by $71 million due to increased costs for food, fuel and shipping, he explained.
That totals about $850 million a year and means there will be "4 million fewer people we can serve."
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Beasley says
the World Food Program is serving close to a million people inside Ukraine
, reaching 2.5 million in the next four weeks, 4 million by the end of May and hopefully 6 million by the end of June.
The amount of those aid programs amounts to about 500 million dollars during the first three months and "about 300 million are still missing, so we will have to intensify" the efforts, he said.
Russia and Ukraine are producers of important goods for the world economy and food
Feb. 24, 202201:17
Beasley warned that focusing on Ukraine should not cause the international community to neglect Africa, especially the Sahel and the Middle East, because "otherwise there will be mass migration" reaching all parts of Europe.
"If that conflict ends, we address the needs, we can prevent famine, destabilization of nations and mass migration," he said.
"
But if we don't, the world will pay a heavy price
and the last thing we want to do is take food from children with food needs to give to hungry children."
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Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said "President (Vladimir) Putin's chosen war" is responsible for affecting global food security.
"Russia has bombed at least three civilian ships carrying goods from Black Sea ports to the rest of the world, including one chartered by an agribusiness company," he said.
"The Russian navy is blocking access to Ukrainian ports and disrupting grain exports."
"We just want the war to end."
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“It is reported that they are preventing approximately 94 ships carrying food for the world market from reaching the Mediterranean,” Sherman said, adding that many shipping companies are hesitant to send ships to the Black Sea, even to Russian ports.
As Russia "strangles Ukrainian exports", food prices are soaring, with wheat prices up 20-50% so far this year, he said.
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"We are particularly concerned about countries such as Lebanon, Pakistan, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and Morocco, which rely heavily on Ukrainian imports to feed their populations," Sherman said.
Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, stated that the Russian military "does not pose a threat to civil shipping."
He said that Russia has established an 80-nautical-mile-long humanitarian corridor to allow foreign ships to leave Ukrainian ports and is organizing humanitarian corridors within Ukraine to Russia and the West every day.
A group of women lined up to buy grain in Cairo, Egypt, on March 22, 2022. Amr Nabil / AP
"The real reasons why the world food market is facing severe turmoil are not at all related to Russia's actions, (but) rather to the rampant sanction hysteria that the West has unleashed against Russia without regard to the population of the so-called Global South, nor its own citizens," said Nebenzia.
Lifting the sanctions is the only way to ensure uninterrupted shipments and stabilize international agricultural and food markets, he said.
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To which Sherman replied: "Sanctions do not prevent grain from leaving Ukraine ports. Putin's war does. And Russia's own food and agricultural exports are not sanctioned by the United States or our allies and partners." ".
France and Mexico called for the council meeting to follow up on the General Assembly's adoption of a humanitarian resolution on Ukraine, put forward by the governments of those countries, which received overwhelming support on Thursday with a vote of 140- 5, with 38 abstentions.
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The resolution calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the protection of civilians and infrastructure essential to their survival, and unhindered access to deliver desperately needed aid.
The French ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, told the Security Council that the resolution on Ukraine has not been approved due to Russia's veto power, and that "it
is Russia's unjustified and unjustifiable war that prevents Ukraine from exporting grain
, It disrupts global supply chains and drives up prices that threaten the accessibility of agricultural products to the most vulnerable."
Russia's aggression against Ukraine increases the risk of famine in the world," he warned.
"People in developing countries are the first to be affected."