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The European Union has warned that Russia’s war against Ukraine is pushing the world on the brink of a food crisis.
A day after the World Bank said Ukraine’s economy would shrink by almost half this year, European bloc chief diplomat Josep Borrell said on April 11 that Russia’s bombing and blockade of ports, making it impossible to transport grain, was creating shock waves at a time when the global economy is already facing the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
“They are causing shortages. They are bombing Ukrainian cities and are provoking world hunger. “They are provoking hunger in our world,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Borrell’s warnings raise concerns in a World Bank report that says economic output in Ukraine is expected to shrink by 45 percent and that the decline will depend on “the length and intensity of the war.”
“The Russian occupation is causing a massive blow to the Ukrainian economy and has resulted in major damage to infrastructure,” said Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s vice president for Europe and Central Asia.
Russia launched the war in Ukraine on February 24.
Since then, it has been hit by a host of Western sanctions, which have isolated it from much of the world, both diplomatically and economically.
The World Bank has said it predicts Russia’s economy will shrink by 11 percent this year as a result of sanctions.
More than 10 million Ukrainians, or a quarter of the population, are believed to have fled their homes, including four million who have left Ukraine altogether, seeking refuge in another country.
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