Russia's UN envoy walks out after Moscow blamed for food crisis
Russia's UN envoy walked out of a meeting after Moscow's actions in Ukraine were blamed for creating a "looming food crisis".
It came as Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said he had witnessed grain and wheat being stuck in containers and ships at the port of Odesa because of a Russian blockade.
He said Russian tanks, bombs and mines were also preventing Ukraine from planting and harvesting, which was "driving up food prices, pushing people into poverty, and destabilising entire regions".
"Russia is solely responsible for this looming food crisis," said Michel. "Russia alone.”
He accused Russia of using food supplies as “a stealth missile against developing countries” and said Russian soldiers were stealing grain from areas it has occupied “while shifting the blame to others” calling this “cowardly” and “propaganda, pure and simple”.
His words prompted Russia's UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, to walk out of the UN Security Council meeting.
"You may leave the room," said Michel. "Maybe it's easier not to listen to the truth, ambassador."
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, said Michel’s comments were “so rude” that Nebenzya had left the chamber.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, at a virtual roundtable discussion with private sector groups on food security issues arising from the conflict, accused Russian forces of planting explosives in captured farmland and of hoarding Ukraine's food exports.
“The Kremlin needs to realise that it is exporting starvation and suffering well beyond Ukraine borders," with Africans experiencing “an outsize share of the pain," he said.
Ukraine and Russia together produce almost a third of the world’s wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil.
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