Global grain shortage branded ‘existential threat’ to Europe amid ‘mass starvation’ fears

Grain shortage is 'existential threat' to European security says MP

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Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has issued a severe warning about Russia’s naval blockade of Ukrainian ports which has sparked a global shortage of grain. Putin’s military has closed off the Black Sea port of Odesa, greatly impacting the global supply of grain. Mr Ellwood has called on the United Nation to act to break the Russian stranglehold on Ukraine’s grain shipments. 

Mr Ellwood told LBC: “Let’s take this to the UN General Assembly avoiding the Security Council because it’ll be vetoed by China and Russia and get a resolution that creates a humanitarian safe haven around the port of Odesa.

“So critical is it to many countries across the world, including countries like Egypt that were you’d see mass starvation if those grain supplies are continued to be interrupted.

“That requires then a coalition of the willing to then move in and yes, you would have to confront Russia but it’s international waters that we’re talking about.

“Turkey would have to come on board as well.

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“But this is 1938 moment if we don’t step up now, where does this go?

“Because there is an existential threat to European security and beyond because sitting behind Russia, watching very carefully, very quietly, is China and that is the dual world that we started to move into.

“This splintering of our way of life between Russia and China versus the West if we don’t grasp this.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using food as a weapon by holding “hostage” supplies for not just Ukrainians, but also millions around the world.

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The war has caused global prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser to soar.

In a further sign of Western action hurting the Russian economy, five foreign vice-presidents of Russia’s Rosneft have resigned because of EU sanctions forbidding European citizens or Russians living in the EU to work at the oil company, sources said.

The EU said it is looking into ways of using the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, while the United States has not ruled out possibly placing sanctions on countries that purchase Russian oil.

Moscow calls its invasion a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of fascists, an assertion Kyiv and its Western allies say is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.

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As the invasion nears the three-month mark, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved nearly $40 billion in new aid for Ukraine, by far the largest US aid package to date.

The past week has seen Russia secure its biggest victory since the invasion began, with Kyiv announcing it had ordered its garrison in a steelworks in Mariupol to stand down, after a protracted siege.

Russian forces have, however, been pushed back this month from the outskirts of the second-largest city Kharkiv.

Ukraine says it has recaptured 23 settlements near Kharkiv in the last two weeks.

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