By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press April 14, 2022, 10:39 p.m. • 3 minutes reading Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article UNITED NATIONS – The US ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday accused Russia of worsening the precarious food situation in Yemen and elsewhere by invading Ukraine, calling it “another grim example of the unprovoked, unjust wave. “Russia’s war is having the most vulnerable in the world.” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council meeting on war-torn Yemen that the World Food Program recognized the poorest nation in the Arab world as one of the world’s worst-hit countries. imports from Ukraine. Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky responded: “The main factor for the instability and the source of the problem today is not the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, but the sanctions imposed on our country, which seeks to stop any supply. from Russia and the supply chain, in addition to those supplies that these countries need in the West, in other words energy “. “If you really want to help people avoid a food crisis, you have to lift the sanctions you imposed yourself, the sanctions of your choice indeed, and the poor countries will immediately feel the difference,” he said. “And if you are not ready to do that, then do not get involved in demagogy and do not mislead everyone.” The sharp exchange came a day after a UN task force warned that war threatened to devastate the economies of many developing countries, which now face even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult economic conditions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement: “As many as 1.7 billion people – a third of whom are already living in poverty – are now at risk for food, energy and economic cause increases in poverty and hunger. “ Thirty-six countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, including some of the world’s poorest countries, he said, and wheat and corn prices have risen by 30% since the beginning of the year. Rebecca Greenspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Trade and Development, coordinated by the task force, said that 1.7 billion people live in 107 countries with “serious exposure” to at least one dimension of the crisis. rising food prices, rising energy prices and tighter economic conditions. The panel said 69 of the countries, with a population of 1.2 billion people, are facing a “perfect storm” and are severely or significantly exposed to all three crises. They include 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean. The United Nations announced on Thursday that it was releasing $ 100 million from the seven-famine emergency fund, Yemen and six African countries – Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Nigeria. “Hundreds of thousands of children will go to bed hungry every night, while their parents are worried about how to feed them,” said Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN humanitarian agency. “A war in the middle of the world makes their prospects even worse. “This distribution will save lives.” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was asked about Polyansky’s comments and whether Guterres was concerned that sanctions were raising food prices. “I think it would be safe to say that there would be no sanctions if there was no conflict,” Dujarric replied.
