Food Crisis Worsens Due To Attack On Russia's Black Sea Fleet And Subsequent Blockade Of Ukrainian Ports

The Global Food Crisis Just Got A Whole Lot Worse

Michael S

It appears that the global food crisis that started in 2022 is going to go to an entirely new level in 2023.  As I have been documenting on my websites, worldwide supplies of food have been getting tighter and tighter for months.  Historic droughts have been crippling food production all over the northern hemisphere, much less fertilizer is being used in poorer countries because of how insanely expensive it has become, and the war in Ukraine has restricted the flow of agricultural exports out of one of the most important breadbaskets on the entire planet.  

Thankfully, a deal that was signed in July had allowed hundreds of ships loaded with precious grain to travel through the war zone successfully.  But now that deal is completely dead and the Russians have resumed their blockade of Ukrainian ports…

Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what President Biden called a “really outrageous” act.

Biden — speaking in Wilmington, Del. — warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a U.N.-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

“It’s really outrageous,” Biden said Saturday. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

So why did the Russians do this?

Is it just because they decided to be mean?

No, it is because the Ukrainians (with help from their western allies) stupidly decided to attack Russia’s Black Sea fleet with a bunch of drones…

Hours later, a statement by the foreign ministry in Moscow said: “The Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the ‘Black Sea Initiative’, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”

It said the move was “in connection with the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, which were led by British specialists” and that these actions “were directed… against Russian ships that ensured the functioning of the said humanitarian corridor”.

Moscow claimed 16 aerial and maritime drones were destroyed, and that only a minesweeper had sustained damage.

What did they think was going to happen?

Did they actually believe that the Russians were just going to stand aside and allow the Ukrainians to sell their grain to the rest of the world after their ships had been attacked?

That is not how the real world works.

Since the deal was originally signed in July, over 9 million tons of grain had safely left Ukrainian ports.

Now that deal is dead, and this is going to make our rapidly growing food crisis even worse.

Even now, there are tens of millions of people in poor countries around the world that are on the brink of starvation…

Indeed, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the ongoing war in Ukraine has brought 70 million people to the brink of starvation. In addition, the war also affected the food supply of another 345 million people. The Executive Director of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, recently said, “It is incredibly troubling that 50 million of those people in 45 countries are suffering from very acute malnutrition…” Since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, Beasley said, soaring food, fuel, and fertilizer costs have driven 70 million people closer to starvation.

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