Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s crop fields may aggravate global famine for over 180 million people.
The war in Ukraine is causing agricultural production disruptions, driving global food and fertiliser prices to unprecedented highs, for which Russia bears huge responsibility.
A viral video on Twitter shows firefighters scrambling to put out fires in wheat fields. Russian shelling caused a fire in the Mykolaiv region, and other Russian attacks created blazes that impacted wheat.
According to one of the tweets on Twitter,
“Make no mistake: Russia is declaring war on the entire globe by pursuing a scorched-earth policy that targets OUR food supply. Russia is largely to blame for the rise in food costs.” These types of tweets amplify the country’s residents’ curiosity, wrath, and dread.
The burning wheat crops are one of Ukraine’s main resources, so it seems obvious that the Russians are now attacking Ukraine’s economy, which is why the battleground has shifted to grain fields.
It is apparent that Russia’s war in Ukraine is preventing grain from reaching the economically weaker parts by raising food prices around the world, threatening to aggravate shortages, hunger, and political instability in developing countries.
Russia and Ukraine send roughly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more than 70% of its sunflower oil, and a significant amount of corn.
World food prices were already rising, and the war has exacerbated the situation by preventing approximately 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain from reaching the Middle East, North Africa, and portions of Asia.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), up to 181 million people in 41 countries might suffer a food crisis or worsening hunger this year.
