Guterres: War in Ukraine affects poor countries

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that Russia's war in Ukraine holds “a sword of Damocles” on the global economy, particularly poor developing countries that are grappling with steep increases in food, fuel and fertilizer prices, and that they see how they “bomb” their pantry.

Guterres told reporters that “Russia and Ukraine account for more than half of the world's supply of sunflower oil and about 30% of the world's wheat” and that “grain prices have already surpassed those at the beginning of the Arab Spring and those of the 2007 and 2008 riots.”

He said that 45 African and least developed countries import at least a third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, and 18 of them import at least 50%. Among those nations are Egypt, Congo, Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, he said.

“All this hits the poorest hardest, sowing the seeds of political instability and discontent around the world,” Guterres warned, noting that the most vulnerable nations were already trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and were dealing with historic inflation, rising interest rates and their debts. even before the war began in Ukraine.

David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, told The Associated Press during a visit to the city of Lviv (Lviv), in western Ukraine, that 50% of the wheat the agency buys to feed “the 125 million people we reach in any given day, week or month, comes from Ukraine, as does 20% of the world's maize supply.

“Therefore, (the war) will have a catastrophic impact on global dynamics,” Beasley said.

Guterres reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for the resumption of serious peace negotiations. “Ukraine is on fire,” he said, adding that “the impact on civilians is reaching frightening proportions.”

He announced that another $40 million from the UN emergency fund will be used to move critical supplies of food, water and medicine to Ukraine, where there are at least 1.9 million displaced people. Another 2.8 million people have left Ukraine for other countries.

UN humanitarian personnel report that in the besieged port city of Mariupol, in the south of the country, civilians are facing an urgent shortage of water, food, medicine and other basic needs, said UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq.

The UN has reached 600,000 people inside Ukraine with some form of humanitarian assistance, Haq said, but the agency's $1.1 billion urgent call to help 6 million people inside Ukraine in the first three months has only managed to raise $219 million so far, or 19%. He asked that nations that pledged to donate funds make their deposits.

On Sunday, three United Nations agencies called for an immediate end to attacks on health facilities, arguing that 24 medical facilities and five ambulances were destroyed or damaged, 12 people have been killed and 34 more have been injured since the start of the war.

UNICEF, WHO and the United Nations Population Fund noted that “these horrific attacks result in deaths and serious injuries among patients and health workers; they destroy essential health infrastructure and force thousands of people to refrain from using these services despite desperately needing them”. They described the attacks as “an act of inconceivable cruelty.”

At the UN premises, the draft resolution on the humanitarian crisis went from the Security Council, where Russia has veto power, to the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes.

France and Mexico, co-promoters of the measure, said in a joint statement released on Monday that their priority is to achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities to protect the civilian population of Ukraine and allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance to millions of people in need. They also indicated that a significant number of countries that are not members of the Security Council want to participate in promoting a resolution.

“We are witnessing the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War,” said the ambassadors of France, Nicolas de Riviere, and Mexico: Juan Ramón de la Fuente.” The humanitarian situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate with each passing hour,” civilians die every day and the number of refugees and internally displaced persons die every day. is still on the rise.

“In order to allow a united message to be conveyed by the international community, we have decided to take our initiative to the General Assembly,” said the two envoys.

Council diplomats noted that after two weeks of closed-door deliberations, the draft resolution would have faced Russia's veto in the Security Council if it had included a call for an immediate end to hostilities, something that the United States and its Western allies are seeking. Had that part been eliminated, as some members of the Council intended, Western nations felt that the resolution would have lacked force, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Council's discussions were private.

“Obviously, it would have been complicated in the Security Council,” De Riviere told reporters.

By bringing the draft resolution to the General Assembly, the co-sponsors lose the possibility of the resolution being legally binding, as are Security Council resolutions. But they could garner strong support for their call to end the violence and to describe the grave state of the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

After Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate end to the Russian attack on Ukraine and the withdrawal of all Russian troops, the General Assembly adopted a similar resolution on 2 March in a vote of 141-5, with 35 abstentions.

De Riviere said France and Mexico are confident that all UN members will support an assembly resolution on access to humanitarian aid, cessation of hostilities and respect for international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

“The sooner, the better,” he said.