On April 14, the United Nations Security Council held a meeting on the political and humanitarian situation in war-torn Yemen.
During the meeting, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield cited Russia’s “war of choice in Ukraine” as the main reason why Wheat prices in Yemen are rising, worsening the dire humanitarian situation in the country. She said that Yemen is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising wheat prices.
But Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, responded by trying to blame Western countries and the sanctions they have imposed on Russia. He said that those countries must acknowledge their responsibility in causing the crisis in the financial and food markets.
“The main factor of instability and the source of the current problem is not the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, but the sanctions measures imposed on our country to cut off any supplies from Russia and the supply chain,” Polyansky said.
That is misleading.
In fact, Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports prevents food shipments from reaching the world. Some ready-to-ship crops stored on docked ships could spoil, worsening the impact Russia’s war is having on Ukrainian farmers’ ability to grow wheat and other crops.
The UN meeting on Yemen came a day after a UN Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, created after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, issued its first report.
He said 1.7 billion people around the world are severely exposed to at least one of three threats caused by the war in Ukraine: rising food prices, rising fuel prices and deteriorating conditions. financial. Among the most affected countries are those that depend on imported food and fuel.
“There is a group of ‘perfect storm’ countries that are severely or significantly exposed to all three transmission channels at once. 69 economies with 1.2 billion people in the world live in these countries,” says the report.
Millions of people in developing countries depend on Ukraine’s wheat harvest. They include countries like Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen.
Yemen was already on the verge of starvation before the war in Ukraine. An estimated 17.4 million people in Yemen are food insecure and 1.6 million are expected to fall into “emergency levels of hunger”, according to the UN.
On April 15, Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said that up to 1.25 million tons of grain and oilseeds were being transported on 57 vessels. could rot because of the russian blockade.
Those ships are among dozens of ships that have been stuck near Ukraine’s seaports for two months since Russia invaded.
“We now have 100 ships stuck in Ukrainian ports or anchored around Ukrainian ports, reports of mines in the area, in many cases crews are unable to get off these ships, and food supply conditions on board these ships are getting worse.” Esben Poulsson. , of the International Chamber of Shipping, said in a interview with CNBC.
As a result of the blockade, Ukraine’s railways reduced grain shipments to ports in March and stopped grain shipments to neighboring countries, according to apk-reportan agricultural business consulting agency.
Most of Ukraine Agricultural exports go from Odessa and other ports on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Naval mines have been detected. in the Black Sea. Some of the mines reached the territorial waters of Turkey. Ukraine and Russia have exchanged accusations about the deployment of mines.
But the British Ministry of Defense blamed Russia.
“Although the origin of such mines remains unclear and disputed, their presence is almost certainly due to Russian naval activity in the area and demonstrates how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting neutral and civilian interests,” he said on Twitter. .
There would almost certainly be no mines and no disruption to agriculture if Russia had not attacked Ukraine, after months of saying it had no such plans.
On April 13, Russia declared that it had taken full control of the Mariupol port after seven weeks of shelling that destroyed much of the city and killed some 20,000 civilians, according to estimates by Ukrainian officials.
Mariupol is the largest Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov and one of the most important agricultural ports in eastern Ukraine.
According to US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Russia targeted three civilian ships carrying goods from Black Sea ports to the world. Sherman said that Ukrainian officials accused Russia of “actively targeting grain silos and food storage facilities.”
Ukrainian farmers, who produced a record grain harvest last year, say that now they lack fertilizers, as well as pesticides and herbicides. They are having trouble getting seed and fuel, Reuters reported last month.
Ukrainian officials have moved to protect domestic supplies to ensure food reaches Ukrainians’ tables. Farmers also fear they could be targeted by Russian attacks or find unexploded ordnance in the fields.
“Some people can’t fertilize their crops because the Russians shoot at anything that moves,” said Jonathan Clibborn, an Irish farmer. National Geographic. “There are reports of them mining the fields, the roads to the fields, not to mention a lot of unexploded ordnance and bodies in the fields.”
“I think [wheat] yields will be rock bottom, maybe a third or a quarter of what they normally would be,” Clibborn said.
Ukraine and Russia together produce 30 percent of the world’s traded wheat and 12 percent of its calories, National Geographic reported. Without food exports from Ukraine and Russia, the world could experience a wave of instability similar to the Arab Spring of 2012.
Without a doubt, world food security is in danger due to the interruption of trade with Russia, one of the world’s leading wheat producers along with China and India. Companies are leaving Russia and pausing their operations.
Since the Russian attack began, the US and European Union governments have imposed waves of sweeping economic sanctions on Russia. Moscow has been blaming those sanctions for causing the food crisis, with Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening to limit food exports to “hostile countries.”
On March 22, Niels Graham and Inbar Pe’er said in an analysis published by the atlantic councila Washington DC-based think tank, that although food is not sanctioned and wheat production has not ceased due to logistical disruptions, traders and banks are refraining from doing business with Russia for fear of government fines .
In addition, due to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, war risk insurance rates increased at least 400 percent for ships sailing the Black Sea, dramatically increasing the cost of trade with Russia.
Arif Husain, Chief Economist at the World Food Program (WFP), said National Public Radio that the war has exacerbated the international economic situation and that “the timing of this unnecessary, unwanted and unjustified war could not have been worse.” Commenting on why Russia’s food exports would be affected even though they are not sanctioned, Husain said: “If you are contaminated, no one will do business with you, even if it is allowed.”
On April 11, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, accused Russia of “causing shortages” and “provoking hunger in the world.”
Besides everything else, increase in fertilizer prices have forced farmers around the world to adapt by limiting cultivation. In 2020, Russia and Belarus accounted for more than 20% of global fertilizer exports.
March 11th, The World Food Program warned that 2022 could be a year of “catastrophic hunger”, as Ukraine is a major supplier of food To the group.
Reference-www.polygraph.info