The United States and other leading economies in the Group of Seven nations Sunday agreed to ban or phase out the purchase of Russian oil, directly targeting a major source of income for Moscow to pay for its 10-week invasion of Ukraine.
“This will hit hard at the main artery of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s economy and deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war,” the G-7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. said after a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The U.S. has already ended its purchase of Russian oil, while the 27-nation European Union, which gets about a quarter of its crude oil imports from Russia, has also announced plans to do likewise. It is still in talks on exactly how to end its reliance on Moscow’s oil.
“Putin has failed in his initial military objective to dominate Ukraine – but he has
succeeded in making Russia a global pariah,” the White House said in a statement.
“Today, the United States, the European Union and G7 committed to ratchet up these costs” with further sanctions targeting “financial elites” in Russia who support Putin, as well as their family members.
The call with Zelenskyy took place on the day the G-7 leaders commemorated the end of World War II in the European theater and as Russia prepared for Monday’s annual celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, which it calls Victory Day.
“We remain united in our resolve that President Putin must not win his war against Ukraine,” the G-7 statement said. “We owe it to the memory of all those who fought for freedom in the Second World War.”
The G-7 said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brings “shame on Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people.”
As part of Sunday’s talks, Washington announced new sanctions against three highly watched Russian state television outlets, saying they “have been among the largest recipients of foreign revenue, which feeds back to the Russian state’s revenue.”
The U.S. also said it would ban Americans from providing financial services to Russian companies to keep elites from building wealth, “thereby generating revenue for Putin’s war machine, and to trying to hide that wealth and evade sanctions.”
The White House statement said the U.S. would also impose further export controls on a wide range of industrial products, to “further limit Russia’s access to items and revenue that could support its military capabilities.”
The U.S. said it has already imposed about 2,600 visa restrictions on Russians and Belarusians in response to what it said was their ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine. Belarus is one of Russia’s closest allies.
The U.S. government has also sanctioned eight executives at Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia; 27 executives from Gazprombank, which handles business by Russia’s Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world; and Moscow Industrial Bank and its 10 subsidiaries.
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«Росія міняє військових, тільки якщо вони полонені, на полонених», сказав президент, говорячи про можливість визволити військових з «Азовсталі»
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The U.K., U.S. and Irish governments have urged rival parties in Northern Ireland to come together to resurrect its power-sharing government after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein scored a historic victory to become the biggest party in Northern Ireland’s Assembly.
Sinn Fein, which seeks union with Ireland, won 27 seats in the 90-seat legislature, beating the Democratic Unionist Party, which secured 25 seats. It’s the first time in Northern Ireland’s history that an Irish nationalist party has topped the voting.
But it’s not clear whether Sinn Fein will lead a new government because of Northern Ireland’s delicate power-sharing politics and ongoing tussles over the legacy of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
While Sinn Fein’s vice president, Michelle O’Neill, now has the right to the post of first minister, a functioning Northern Ireland Executive — or devolved government — cannot be formed unless the largest unionist party agrees to join in the role of deputy first minister.
In February the DUP’s Paul Givan quit as first minister in protest against post-Brexit border arrangements, collapsing the Executive. His party has said it will not return to government unless their demands over the customs arrangements are met.
Leaders in London and Dublin said all parties must now re-establish Northern Ireland’s government as soon as possible.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin late Saturday said, “It is now incumbent on all political parties and elected representatives to deliver on their mandate.”
“Power-sharing and principles of partnership, equality and mutual respect are at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, through which peace has been secured and progress achieved for almost 25 years,” he added. “A new power-sharing Executive is vital for progress and prosperity for all in Northern Ireland.”
In London, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he will meet with party leaders Monday to discuss how to re-establish a functioning government.
Lewis reiterated his position that the U.K. government would like to reach an agreement with the EU to resolve disputes over post-Brexit rules known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP is strongly opposed to the rules, which have imposed customs and border checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. Unionists say the new checks have created a barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. that undermines their British identity.
Britain’s Conservative government is trying to get the EU to agree to major changes, but negotiations have reached an impasse.
“The U.K. government’s position is we want to secure a deal with the EU. We’re very clear about that,” Lewis told the BBC Sunday. “We have worked very hard on that for over a year now across a series of conversations. We made proposals. The EU hasn’t shown any flexibility.”
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said post-Brexit problems are an “obstacle to stability” in Northern Ireland, and that the government in London will take “whatever measures are necessary” to try to resolve it.
“It’s clear from the dynamic that we now see that we won’t get to that position of stability unless and until it is fixed,” Raab said.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price also urged Northern Ireland’s political leaders to take the necessary steps to re-establish a functioning government.
Brexit’s legacy adds an extra challenge to Northern Ireland’s politics, which operates under a delicate system splitting power between the largest British unionist party and largest Irish nationalist party. The system was created by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that ended decades of Catholic-Protestant conflict.
If no power-sharing Executive can be formed within six months, a new election may be triggered.
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«Україна має отримати всю зброю і оборонне обладнання, яке дозволить перемогти тиранію», закликав президент
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Партія ірландських націоналістів «Шинн Фейн» виступає за вихід зі складу Сполученого Королівства та об’єднання Ірландії
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За даними видання Politico, американські дипломати повертаються, аби відзначити День перемоги над нацизмом у Європі
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Red Soviet flags and orange-and-black striped military ribbons are on display in Russian cities and towns. Neighborhoods are staging holiday concerts. Flowers are being laid by veterans’ groups at monuments to the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in the country.
At first glance, preparations for Monday’s celebration of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, seem to be the same as ever.
But the mood this year is very different, because Russian troops are fighting and dying again.
And this battle, now in its 11th week, is going on in neighboring Ukraine, against what the government has falsely called a campaign against “Nazis.”
The pride and patriotism usually associated with Russia’s most important holiday, marked by a huge parade of soldiers and military hardware through Red Square, is mixing with apprehension and unease over what this year’s Victory Day may bring.
Some Russians fear that President Vladimir Putin will use it to declare that what the Kremlin has previously called a “special military operation” in Ukraine will now be a full-fledged war — bringing with it a broad mobilization of troops to bolster Russia’s forces.
“I can’t remember a time when the May 9 holiday was anticipated with such anxiety,” historian Ivan Kurilla wrote on Facebook.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Moscow was covertly preparing such a plan. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio that Putin was “laying the ground for being able to say, ‘Look, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people.’”
The Kremlin denied having such plans, calling the reports “untrue” and “nonsense.”
Asked by The Associated Press on Friday whether mobilization rumors could dampen the Victory Day mood, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “nothing will cast a shadow” over “the sacred day, the most important day” for Russians.
Still, human rights groups reported a spike in calls from people asking about laws concerning mobilization and their rights in case of being ordered to join the military.
“Questions about who can be called up and how have started to flow on a mass scale through our hotline about the rights of conscripts and the military,” said Pavel Chikov, founder of the Agora legal aid group, on the messaging app Telegram.
Russian state TV has ramped up the patriotic rhetoric. In announcing the Feb. 24 military operation, Putin declared it was aimed at the “demilitarization” of Ukraine to remove a perceived military threat to Russia by “neo-Nazis.”
A recent TV commentary said Putin’s words were “not an abstract thing and not a slogan” and praised Russia’s success in Ukraine, even though Moscow’s troops have gotten bogged down, making only minor gains in recent weeks.
Ukraine, which has a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust, and the West have condemned the remarks as a fictitious cover for a blunt act of aggression.
But many Russians fed a steady diet of the official narrative have cheered on their troops, comparing them to “our grandfathers” who fought the Germans.
Popular support in Russia for the war in Ukraine is difficult to gauge in a country that has seen a steady crackdown on journalists in recent years, with independent media outlets shut down and state-controlled television providing a pervasive influence.
A recent poll by the respected independent Levada Center found that 82% of Russians remain concerned by the military campaign in Ukraine. The vast majority of them – 47% – are worried about the deaths of civilians and Russian soldiers in the war, along with the devastation and suffering. Only 6% of those concerned by the war said they were bothered by the alleged presence of “Nazis” and “fascists” in Ukraine.
“A significant part of the population is horrified, and even those who support the war are in a permanent psychological militant state of a perpetual nightmare,” said political analyst Andrei Kolesnikov in a recent commentary.
A government campaign encouraging support for the military is using the distinctive black-and-orange St. George’s ribbon that is traditionally associated with Victory Day.
The letter “Z” has become a symbol of the conflict, decorating buildings, posters and billboards across Russia, and many forms of it use the ribbon’s colors and pattern.
Rallies supporting the troops have taken place in recent days at World War II memorials, with participants singing wartime songs from the 1940s.
One official has suggested that Victory Day marchers display photos of soldiers now fighting in Ukraine. Normally on the holiday, Russians carry portraits of their relatives who took part in World War II to honor those in the so-called “Immortal Regiment” from a conflict in which the Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people.
your ad hereUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting virtually Sunday with the Group of 7 leaders, who head the world’s largest economies.
The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States are meeting with the Ukrainian leader to show their support for Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion that began in February. The G-7 has pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine.
Sunday’s meeting is a day ahead of Russia’s annual Victory Day celebration, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The holiday is celebrated across Russia with military parades.
Ukrainian officials had warned its citizens to expect increased shelling in the lead-up to Monday’s celebrations in Russia.
In his daily address Saturday, Zelenskyy decried Russia’s bombing of a museum in the Kharkiv region dedicated to 18th century philosopher and poet Hryhorii Skovoroda.
Zelenskyy said Skovoroda was a man who “taught people what a true Christian attitude to life is and how a person can get to know himself.”
Zelenskyy said, “Well, it seems that this is a terrible danger for modern Russia — museums, the Christian attitude to life and people’s self-knowledge.”
He said Russia has destroyed nearly 200 Ukrainian cultural sites.
“Today, the invaders launched a missile strike at Odesa. At a city where almost every street has something memorable, something historical,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “should remind every state and every nation that it is impossible to defeat evil once and for all,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian officials said Sunday up to 60 people are presumed dead after Russia bombed a school in the eastern Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka. Thirty people were rescued, and two bodies were recovered from the site that was being used as a bomb shelter.
All women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from the Mariupol steel works plant besieged by Russian forces, according to Anna Chernikova, a VOA reporter in Kyiv.
The Soviet-era steel mill of Azovstal, the last holdout in Mariupol for Ukrainian forces, has emerged as a symbol of resistance to the wider Russian effort to capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine in the 10-week-old war.
The United Nations, which is leading the rescue effort, along with the International Red Cross, is not confirming that the operation has ended.
While under heavy bombardment at the steel plant, fighters and civilians have been trapped for weeks in deep bunkers and tunnels that crisscross the site, with little food, water or medicine.
Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery tried again Saturday to storm Azovstal, Ukraine’s military command said, part of a ferocious assault to dislodge the last Ukrainian defenders in the strategic port city on the Sea of Azov.
Mariupol has been left in ruins by weeks of Russian bombardment, and the steel mill has been largely destroyed.
The World Health Organization is gathering evidence for a possible war crimes investigation. The agency said Saturday it has documented Russian attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine.
Reuters reports that WHO Emergencies Director Mike Ryan, on an unannounced visit in Ukraine with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a news conference it was the explicit responsibility of warring parties to avoid attacking health facilities, yet the WHO had documented 200 attacks on hospitals and clinics in the country.
“Intentional attacks on health care facilities are a breach of international humanitarian law and as such — based on investigation and attribution of the attack — represent war crimes in any situation,” Ryan said.
“We continue to document and bear witness to these attacks … and we trust that the U.N. system and the International Criminal Court and others will take the necessary investigations in order to assess the criminal intent behind these attacks.”
Russia has denied previous accusations by Ukraine and Western nations of possible war crimes and has also denied targeting civilians in the war.
Ryan said the 200 cases did not represent the totality of attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities, only those the WHO had verified. Kyiv has said there have been around 400 such attacks since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s armed forces Saturday released footage said to show a Russian landing ship being destroyed near Snake Island.
Satellite images taken early Saturday by Planet Labs PBC showed what appeared to be a Serna-class landing ship near Snake Island’s northern beach.
That corresponds with the video released by the Ukrainian military said to show a Bayraktar TB2 drone striking it, engulfing the vessel in flames.
Striking Snake Island would impede Russia’s efforts to control the Black Sea.
Russia’s most senior lawmaker Saturday accused Washington of coordinating military operations in Ukraine which he said amounted to direct U.S. involvement in military action against Russia.
“Washington is essentially coordinating and developing military operations, thereby directly participating in military actions against our country,” Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Reuters reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin will send a “doomsday” message to the West on May 9.
A Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said Friday that Russia has no intention of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Ukraine.
“Russia firmly abides by the principle that there can be no victors in a nuclear war, and it must not be unleashed,” Alexei Zaitsev said.
Elsewhere in Eastern Europe. U.S. first lady Jill Biden is in Slovakia on Sunday where she visited a refugee center for Ukrainians housed in a bus station. She had a long conversation with Viktoце Kutocha and her 7-year-old daughter, Yulie. Viktoue Kutocha talked about leaving Ukraine, and how “cruel” the Russian attacks are.
Later, at a school, the first lady interacted with mothers and their children in a Mother’s Day activity.
Biden is in Eastern Europe to show support for U.S. troops and Ukraine.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters.
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«Ми дуже вдячні, що саме в цей важливий день норвезький народ демонструє нам свою потужну підтримку», – додав віцеспікер Ради
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За повідомленням, російські проблеми, ймовірно, залишаться незмінними, «враховуючи відносну відсутність досвіду оперативного командування в офіцерів, призначених замість загиблих»
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У британському уряді зазначили, що це – найвищий рівень фінансової підтримки з часів воєн в Іраку й Афганістані, при цьому вони не повідомили деталі розрахунків
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«Нікуди з міста їхати не треба. Не витрачайте пальне. Краще подбайте про укриття на випадок тривоги»
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«Голова Бундестагу Бербель Бас розпочинає свій візит до Києва. 8 травня вона вшанує пам’ять всіх жертв Другої світової війни і тиранії націонал-соціалістів і проведе політичні переговори»
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Food prices around the world have soared to record levels this year as the Russia-Ukraine war slashes key exports of wheat and fertilizer from those countries, at the same time as droughts, floods and heat fueled by climate change claim more harvests.
Wheat prices hit a 14-year peak in March, and maize prices reached the highest ever recorded, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) said in a report released on Friday.
That has made basic staples more expensive – or harder to find – for families in many countries, especially the poorest.
Climate change, widespread poverty and conflicts are now combining to create “endemic and widespread” risks to global food security – which means higher food prices may be the new normal, unless action is taken to curb the threats, IPES noted.
It suggests not only cutting emissions swiftly to limit climate change but also tackling commodity speculation, giving debt relief, cutting reliance on chemical fertilizers, reshaping trade and shoring up national grain reserves.
If these things are neglected, the world will find itself “sleepwalking into the catastrophic and systematic food crises of the future”, the IPES experts noted.
Why are food prices so high right now?
Russia and Ukraine supply about 30% of global wheat exports, but those have fallen as a result of the conflict.
National stocks of wheat – mostly eaten in the countries where it is grown – remain relatively high, said Brigitte Hugh of the U.S. Center for Climate and Security.
But the drop in exports from Russia and Ukraine has driven up competition for the remaining wheat on the global market, leading to higher costs that are particularly painful for poorer, debt-ridden countries that rely heavily on imports.
Almost 40% of Africa’s wheat imports come from Ukraine and Russia, while rising global wheat prices have sent bread prices in Lebanon 70% higher, IPES said.
But the disruption to wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine is not the whole reason for the price hikes, which have spilled over into maize, rice and soy markets as buyers seek alternative grains.
Spurred by the conflict, financial speculators have leapt into trading in grain futures, for instance, “artificially” inflating prices as they seek to profit from market uncertainty, G7 agriculture ministers have complained.
Since the last food price crises of 2007-2008 and 2011-2012, “governments have failed to curb excessive speculation and ensure transparency of food stocks and commodity markets,” said Jennifer Clapp, a professor specialized in food security at Canada’s University of Waterloo.
The problem “must be urgently addressed” if the world wants to ensure more stable food prices in coming years as climate change, conflict and other threats drive up risks, she added.
Can’t more food be grown to boost global supplies?
Some wheat-growing countries are already planting more, and India has said it will boost exports of wheat to meet demand, although its current heatwave could dent yields, the London-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit warned.
But efforts to boost production globally have been hampered by shortages of chemical fertilizer. Russia and Belarus produced 40% of international potash exports last year and that trade has also been hit by the war.
Climate change impacts – from droughts and heatwaves to flooding and new pests – also are making it harder for farmers in many parts of the world to get a reliable crop, a problem set to worsen as planet-heating emissions continue to rise.
As well, the land available to plant more wheat, maize and rice is limited, with expansion of farmland – particularly in countries such as Brazil – often coming at the expense of forests that are key to keeping the climate stable.
With a limited supply of land under increasing pressure from those trying to grow food, protect nature, install renewable energy and store carbon, land may become the strategic global asset of this century, said Tim Benton, research director of the environment and society program at think-tank Chatham House.
A desire to control more Ukrainian farmland – and more of the future global food market – could even be one of the drivers of Russia’s invasion, he noted.
What could help keep food affordable?
Because a large share of the world’s grain goes to feeding livestock, persuading people to eat less meat and dairy could boost grain supplies dramatically, said Pierre-Marie Aubert, an agriculture expert at France’s Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations.
The global shortage of cereals on export markets this year is expected to be 20-25 million tonnes – but if Europeans alone cut their consumption of animal products by 10%, they could reduce demand by 18-19 million tonnes, he noted.
Improving grain storage, particularly in countries highly reliant on imports, and helping those countries grow more staple food at home – not the cash crops for export that have often replaced staples – could also help, food experts said.
And globally, planting a wider variety of crops in order to reduce dependence on just a few grains, with markets dominated by a small number of exporters, could boost food security.
Policy shifts – like Africa’s new continental free trade area – could eventually allow some poorer nations to reduce their dependence on distant producers and fragile supply chains, said Sithembile Mwamakamba of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN).
In addition, investing in climate-smart farming, to protect harvests as the planet warms, would help shore up global food supplies, while providing debt relief could give the poorest countries more fiscal space to manage food price fluctuations.
What happens if food prices continue to rise?
As food prices soar on world markets, humanitarian agencies are struggling to buy grain for hungry people in conflict-hit places like Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan and Syria.
The international aid system was already “overwhelmed” by rising need and inadequate funding before the Russia-Ukraine war, and now high prices mean less grain can be bought, said Gernot Laganda, the climate and disaster risk reduction chief at the U.N. World Food Program.
“It has never been this bad,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He fears that, as climate change adds to existing food security threats, price hikes are “a runaway train you can’t stop”.
Worse, as costly food threatens to stoke political unrest and eat up government funds, it could derail efforts to curb climate change and build resilience to its impacts, driving a vicious cycle of ever more poverty, unrest and hunger, he warned.
Benton of Chatham House said the Russia-Ukraine war may trigger a landmark shift in food prices.
“The end of cheap and highly available food, for some people, is going to be very much the reality,” he noted.
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A deadly fire at an aerospace research institute in Tver, northwest of Moscow. Another blaze at a munitions factory in Perm, more than 1,100 kilometers to the east. And fires in two separate oil depots in Bryansk, near Belarus.
Coincidences, or a sign that Ukrainians or their supporters are mounting a campaign of sabotage inside Russia to punish Moscow for invading their country?
Since the blaze at the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces in Tver on April 21, which killed at least 17 people, social media has leapt on every report of a fire somewhere in Russia — especially at a sensitive location — as a sign that the country is under covert attack.
No one is claiming responsibility, but analysts say at least some of the incidents, particularly those in Bryansk, point to a possible effort by Kyiv to bring the war to their invaders.
In a post on Telegram, Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called the fires “divine intervention.”
“Large fuel depots periodically burn … for different reasons,” he wrote. “Karma is a cruel thing.”
‘We don’t deny’
In a massive country such as Russia, a fire at a remote factory or building would normally not be particularly eyebrow-raising.
But since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than a dozen blazes noted by people who document the war have drawn huge attention on social media, amid fears there is a concerted campaign of arsonous terror by the Ukrainians.
Even fires late last month in Russia’s far east — at an airbase north of Vladivostok and at a coal plant on Sakhalin — raised suspicions.
And on Wednesday, a massive conflagration struck a chemicals plant in Dzerzhinsk, east of Moscow.
“Russian saboteurs against Putin continue their heroic work,” said Igor Sushko, a Ukrainian racecar driver who regularly posts photos and videos on Twitter of alleged acts of sabotage inside Russia — but offers no proof they were deliberate.
Another Zelenskyy adviser, Oleksei Arestovych, was equally opaque to The New York Times, noting that Israel never admits its covert attacks and assassinations.
“We don’t confirm, and we don’t deny,” he said.
Part of the strategy?
War analysts believe the infernos in Bryansk, which hit facilities sending oil to Europe, were deliberate and tied to the war.
The anonymous analysts behind “Ukraine Weapons Tracker,” a Twitter account that posts detailed accounts with supporting videos of attacks by both sides, said they received “reliable” information that the Bryansk fires were the result of attacks by Ukrainian Bayraktar drones.
“If accurate, then this story again shows the ability of Ukrainian forces to conduct strikes in Russian territory using long-range assets,” they wrote.
“I think it was probably a Ukrainian attack, but we cannot be certain,” Rob Lee, another war analyst, told The Guardian.
Added to that have been a number of apparent shellings by helicopters and drones and evident acts of sabotage against infrastructure in Kursk and Belgorod oblast on the Ukrainian border, close to the fighting.
The governors of Belgorod and Kursk have both blamed the fires and destruction of infrastructure such as railway bridges on saboteurs and attackers from Ukraine.
An April 1 attack on a Belgorod fuel depot, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel, was the result of “an air strike from two helicopters of the armed forces of Ukraine, which entered the territory of Russia at a low altitude.”
“Nothing that would confirm Ukrainian sabotage, except for the fact that many of the fires seemed to hit strategic/military targets,” said Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Such attacks “certainly seem to be a part of their strategy,” he said.
Pentagon officials have said that Russian forces inside Ukraine are hobbled by weak supply chains, and attacks on their infrastructure would further affect their war effort.
But U.S. officials would not comment on whether, deeper inside Russia, there is an active campaign of sabotage hitting targets not-so-directly related to the invasion.
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Ukrainians are finding different ways to leave the areas under heavy fire along the southern front line of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
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Путін «переконаний, що подвоєння (військових зусиль) все одно дозволить йому досягти прогресу»
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The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says global food prices stabilized last month at a very high level but were slightly lower than in March, which saw the highest ever jump in food prices.
FAO officials see little prospect of a significant decrease in the price of food as long as the Russian-Ukrainian war goes on. Both countries combined account for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and up to 80% of sunflower seed oil shipments.
The FAO’s deputy director in the markets and trade division, Josef Schmidhuber, said disruption in the export of those and other food commodities from Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on global food security. He said poor countries are suffering most because they are being priced out of the market.
“It is an almost grotesque situation that we see at the moment,” he said. “In Ukraine, there are nearly 25 million tons of grain that could be exported but they cannot leave the country simply because of the lack of infrastructure and the blockade of the ports. At the same time…there is no wheat corridor opening up for exports from Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s summer crop of wheat, barley, and corn will be harvested in July and August. Despite the war, Schmidhuber said harvest conditions are not dire. He said about 14 million tons of grain should be available for export.
However, he notee there is not enough storage capacity in Ukraine. He added there is a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen over the next couple of months as the conflict grinds on.
“And what we also see, and that is, of course, only anecdotal evidence, that grain is being stolen by Russia and is being transported on trucks into Russia,” Schmidhuber said. “The same goes for agricultural implements, tractors, etc., etc. And all that could have a bearing on agricultural output.”
The FAO official said the situation in Ukraine indicates that the current problem is not one of availability, but one of access. He said there is enough grain to go around and feed the world. The problem, he said, is the food is not moving to the places where it is needed.
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