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War significantly disrupting Ukraine’s food production and posing threat to global food security, UK warns

MoD issues stark warning amid concerns conflict could cause food shortages in Africa and Middle East

Joe Middleton
Tuesday 26 April 2022 00:55 BST
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Russia is 'failing' in its Ukraine war aims, says Blinken

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has significantly disrupted the country’s agricultural production, the UK has warned.

A defence intelligence update on the conflict from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Ukrainian grain harvest for 2022 “is likely to be around 20 per cent lower than 2021 due to reduced sowing areas following the invasion.”

The country is the fourth largest producer and exporter of agricultural goods and the reduced grain supply could cause a global increase in the price of grain, the update added.

The MoD said that high grain prices could “threaten global food security”, particularly in poorer countries.

The dire warning comes just a week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the European conflict was contributing to economic downgrades for 143 countries and called high inflation “a clear and present danger” to the global economy.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the war has disrupted global trade in energy and grain and is threatening to cause food shortages in Africa and Middle East.

Ms Georgieva also warned of “the fragmentation of the world economy into geopolitical blocs,” with the West imposing far-reaching sanctions on Russia.

A dockyard worker watches as barley grain is mechanically poured into a 40,000 ton ship at an Ukrainian agricultural exporter’s shipment terminal in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikolaev in 2013

She said: “In a world where war in Europe creates hunger in Africa; where a pandemic can circle the globe in days and reverberate for years; where emissions anywhere mean rising sea levels almost everywhere — the threat to our collective prosperity from a breakdown in global cooperation cannot be overstated.”

In other developments, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said that 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine and 2,000 of its armoured vehicles have either been destroyed or captured.

Making a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Wallace said: “It is our assessment that approximately 15,000 Russian personnel have been killed during their offensive.

“Alongside the death toll are the equipment losses and in total a number of sources suggest that to date over 2,000 armoured vehicles have been destroyed or captured.

This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

“This includes at least 530 tanks, 530 armoured personnel carriers and 560 infantry fighting vehicles.

“Russia has also lost over 60 helicopters and fighter jets.”

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Anthony Blinken said that Russia is “failing in war aims” and Ukraine is “succeeding”.

Speaking at a news conference he added that a “sovereign, independent Ukraine” will be around “a lot longer than Russia’s Putin is on the scene.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

Additional reporting by agencies

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