Ukraine crisis could push more than one-fifth of humanity into poverty, hunger: UN warns amid ongoing Russian aggression

`We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world,` UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Russian aggression, the United Nations (UN) has warned that the Ukraine crisis could push more than one-fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Ukraine crisis is blocking grain exports and disrupting supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket.

"We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades," Guterres was quoted as saying by ANI on Monday (April 18, 2022).

Ukraine and Russia account for 30 per cent of world production of wheat and barley, a fifth of all corn and more than half of all sunflower oil, the UN Chief said, specifying that Russia and Ukraine account for over a third of the wheat imported to the 45 least developed countries.

Since the start of 2022, wheat and corn prices have gone up by 30 per cent, Brent crude oil prices have risen by more than 60 per cent, while gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled.

Guterres called for global reforms that would change the world`s financial system "that makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer."

Earlier last week, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will downgrade forecasts for 143 economies this year, which collectively make up 86 per cent of the world`s GDP.

The chiefs of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) had also recently issued a joint statement calling for urgent, coordinated action to address food security amid the fallout of the Ukraine crisis, which is adding to the still ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the northeast and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting.

After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv.

Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine`s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

"This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians," he said late on Sunday.

Russia, however, denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks. It calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists.

The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.

(With agency inputs)