Russia’s war is stoking mass famine and could cause ‘global catastrophe’, World Bank boss warns
- World Bank president: record food price rises will cause global starvation
- Ireland accuses Putin of using military tactics to induce worldwide food crisis
- Soaring energy costs and wave of refugees already triggered by Ukraine war
- World Bank estimates 37 per cent rise in food costs, affecting poor even more
The world was warned last night that it is facing a ‘human catastrophe’ as Vladimir Putin stokes a global famine.
World Bank president David Malpass said the record rises in food costs triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could push hundreds of millions of people into malnutrition and poverty.
His warning came as Ireland accused Putin of using military tactics to engineer a worldwide food crisis on top of a massive wave of refugees and soaring energy costs.
World Bank president David Malpass (pictured at COP26) said Putin could start global famine
The war between Russia and Ukraine, which together export more than a quarter of the world’s wheat, has sent prices soaring.
The US-based World Bank, which provides loans and grants to low and middle-income countries for capital projects, calculates there will be a staggering 37 per cent rise in food costs. It said the effect will be ‘magnified for the poor’ who will have to ‘eat less’ and will be left with little money for anything else.
African countries who rely heavily on Russian and Ukrainian grain exports will be hardest hit, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Mr Malpass said: ‘It’s a human catastrophe, meaning nutrition goes down.
‘But then it also becomes a political challenge for governments who can’t do anything about it – they didn’t cause it and they see the prices going up.’
Ukraine and Russia produce 25 per cent of Earth’s grain (under-used wheat warehouse, Lviv)
On soaring prices, Mr Malpass told the BBC: ‘It’s affecting food of all different kinds… oils, grains and then it gets into other crops – corn crops – because they go up when wheat goes up.’ He said global stockpiles are large by historic standards, but there will have to be a sharing or sales process to get the food to where it is needed most.
He stressed the focus needed to be on increasing supplies across the world of fertilisers and food, alongside assistance for the poorest people.
The World Bank chief also warned of a ‘crisis within a crisis’ arising from the inability of developing countries to service large pandemic debts amid sharply rising food and energy prices.
He was speaking days after the head of the United Nation’s World Food Programme warned of a dire food crisis.
Soaring supermarket prices and a wave of refugees have been blamed on the war (file image)
Chief executive David Beasley said the shortage in food caused by the war could lead to ‘catastrophe on top of a catastrophe’.
Meanwhile, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin said Putin was intent on ‘causing huge international instability’ around food by deliberately targeting grain silos.
He insisted: ‘The largest grain silos in Ukraine have all been levelled so there’s a very clear strategic objective to create a food crisis on top of the energy crisis that has been created as well as waging an immoral and unjust war on Ukraine itself.’
He was speaking after being briefed by Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal during an hour-long meeting on a stopover on his way to Washington this week.
Mr Martin said that Putin wanted to create a major food crisis as part of his ‘crimes against humanity’.
He added that he and Mr Shmyhal had discussed how the Kremlin was trying to ‘bomb people out of Ukraine’ by creating so much terror they had no choice but to flee.
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