UN: Ukraine Crisis Can Lead to Global Food Crisis

The UN has warned that Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine might spark a global food catastrophe that could endure for years.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on May 18 at a UN meeting in New York on global food security that the war had aggravated food insecurity in poorer countries due to rising prices.

According to him, if Ukraine's exports are not restored to pre-war levels, some nations may experience long-term famines.

The battle is said to have shut off supply from Ukraine's ports, which used to export large volumes of cooking oil and commodities like maize and wheat.

As a result, worldwide supply has been curtailed, driving up the cost of alternatives. According to the United Nations, global food costs are about 30% higher than they were this time last year.

Mr. Guterres noted that the violence, when combined with the effects of climate change and the pandemic, "threatens to push tens of millions of people over the brink into food insecurity, malnutrition, mass hunger, and famine."

Global hunger, he claims, has reached a new high. The number of people who are extremely food insecure has doubled in only two years, from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today, according to the UN Secretary-General.

According to the UN, more than half a million people are suffering from famine, an increase of more than 500 percent since 2016. Guterres stated, "If we don't feed people, we feed war."