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- The European Council head told a UN Security Council meeting Russia’s war was stopping food from being grown and exported.
- “Russia is solely responsible for this looming food crisis. Russia alone,” Charles Michel said.
- It prompted Russia’s UN ambassador to walk out.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations stormed out of a UN Security Council meeting after the European Council’s president said that Russia was risking a global food crisis in its invasion of Ukraine.
European Council President Charles Michel spoke directly to Vassily Nebenzia at the meeting on Monday, where he accused Russia of preventing Ukraine from growing food, said it was stopping the exportation of food from Ukraine to the rest of the world, and said Russia’s troops were stealing grain.
Ukraine produces a large amount of food, particularly for the developing world, including 12% and 17% of the world’s supply of wheat and corn. The World Food Programme has warned that the invasion could result in a “hunger catastrophe.”
Michel said that Russia’s attacks in Ukraine meant Ukraine could not plant or harvest food, as Ukraine’s transportation systems and grain storage facilities were being attacked.
Michel also said that Russia was preventing food from leaving the country, including going to developing countries that are at risk of a food crisis, and said that Russia’s troops were stealing grain in Ukraine “while shifting the blame of others.”
Michel said he saw millions of tons of grains and wheat stuck in the port in the Ukrainian city of Odesa a few weeks before “because of Russian warships in the Black Sea.”
“This is driving up food prices, pushing people into poverty and destabilizing entire regions,” Michel said. “Russia is solely responsible for this looming food crisis. Russia alone.”
He also accused Russia of using its control over food supplies as “a stealth missile against developing countries.”
Nebenzia left the meeting during Michel’s speech.
Michel acknowledged that the ambassador was leaving, saying: “You may leave the room, maybe it’s easier not to listen to the truth.”
Nebenzia told Reuters as he left: “I couldn’t stay.”
He said this was because of “the lies that Charles Michel came here to distribute.”
The UN and Russia are currently in talks to unblock Ukrainian ports so grain can be exported.
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