Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
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Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia must keep a close eye on its food exports to hostile countries because the West's sanctions had fomented a global food crisis and spiraling energy prices.

The West's sanctions over Putin's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine have tipped Russia towards its worst economic crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Moscow says the global impact of the sanctions could be much more significant.

The Kremlin chief cautioned that higher energy prices combined with a shortage of fertilizers would prompt the West to print money to buy up supplies, leading to food shortages among poorer countries.

"They will inevitably exacerbate food shortages in the poorest regions of the world, spur new waves of migration and in general drive food prices even higher," Putin told a meeting on developing food production.

"In these current conditions, a shortage of fertilizers on the global market is inevitable," Putin said. "We will have to be more careful about food supplies abroad, especially carefully monitor the exports to countries which are hostile to us."

One of Putin's allies warned last week that Russia could limit supplies of agriculture products to "friendly" countries only, amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Russia is the world's largest exporter of wheat, supplying it mainly to Africa and the Middle East, and a major producer of potash, phosphate and nitrogen containing fertilizers - key crop and soil nutrients.

Russia produces more than 50 million tons a year of fertilizers, 13% of the global total. Phosagro, Uralchem, Uralkali, Acron and Eurochem are the biggest fertilizer players.

Sanctions, Putin said, had disrupted logistics for fertilizer supplies from Russia and Belarus while higher prices for natural gas was making fertilizer production more expensive in the West.

In a warning to European states, Putin warned that Moscow would respond in kind to any attempt to nationalize Russian assets, quipping that such action was a "a double-edged weapon".

Putin was speaking a day after Germany said its energy regulator would take control of Gazprom Germania, a gas trading, storage and transmission business which Russia's Gazprom said it was exiting last Friday.

The British government may decide to step in and temporarily run Russian gas giant Gazprom's British retail supply arm.

Putin says Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution.

Ukraine has dismissed Putin's claims of persecution and says Russia is fighting an unprovoked war of aggression.



An 8-hour Russian Drone Barrage Keeps Kyiv on Edge as the War in Ukraine nears 1,000 Days

Firefighters work at a compound of a vegetable warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Firefighters work at a compound of a vegetable warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
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An 8-hour Russian Drone Barrage Keeps Kyiv on Edge as the War in Ukraine nears 1,000 Days

Firefighters work at a compound of a vegetable warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Firefighters work at a compound of a vegetable warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Dozens of Russian drones targeted the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in a nighttime attack that lasted eight hours, authorities said Thursday, as Russia kept up its relentless pounding of Ukraine after almost 1,000 days of war.
Russian forces fired lone drones and swarms of drones that entered Ukrainian airspace from various directions and at a variety of altitudes, officials said, in an apparent attempt to stretch air defense systems and unnerve city residents, The Associated Press said.
Ukrainian air defenses “neutralized” three dozen drones, but falling debris caused damage to a hospital and residential and office buildings in the capital, local authorities said, including a blaze on the 33rd floor of an apartment building.
At least two people were reported injured.
Drone attacks on Kyiv have recently been occurring almost daily, with the nighttime explosions and the continuous buzzing sound of drones keeping the city on edge. Russia is deploying about 10 times more Iranian-made Shahed drones than it was this time last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week.
Ukraine’s forces are struggling to match the might of Russia’s military, which is much bigger and better equipped. Western support is crucial for Ukraine to sustain the costly war of attrition. The uncertainty over how long that aid will continue has deepened, however, with the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. He has repeatedly taken issue with US aid to Ukraine.
Russia, meanwhile, is trying to grind down Ukraine’s appetite for the fight and sap the West’s support for Kyiv by drawing out the conflict.
The Russian barrages mostly involve Shahed drones. They are suited to terrorizing civilians, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of the state Center for Countering Disinformation.
Russia is aiming to save and stockpile its missiles, which are much more powerful than drones, Kovalenko claimed Thursday. Russia has used missiles effectively in its campaign to knock out Ukraine’s power grid.
Also, the drone attacks gradually wear down Ukraine’s air defenses, making it more vulnerable to future missile launches.
Power outages were reported in the Zhytomyr region, which borders Kyiv to the west, following a Russian attack there, according to the energy company Zhytomyroblenergo.
Another Russian drone attack injured one person in the southern city of Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said, as drone debris damaged an 11-story residential building.