hopeless Olga Vasilyevna is sitting in her house on the outskirts of Kyiv, without water or electricity. Photo: AP
Workers recovered dozens of bodies from the rubble of buildings destroyed in a “endless caravan of death” within the devastated city of Mariupol, local officials said, as fears of a global food crisis grew over Ukraine’s inability to export millions of tons of cereals due to the blockade in its ports.
At the same time, Russian and Ukrainian forces staged heavy fighting for control of Severodonetsk, a city that has become central part of the Moscow countryside to control the industrial region of eastern Ukraine known as Donbas.
The human cost of war continues to rise as the fighting drags on. In many of the buildings in Mariupol, workers they find between 50 and 100 bodies in eachaccording to an aide from the mayor’s office in the port city which is under Russian control.
caravan of death
Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram that the bodies they are transported in an “endless caravan of death” towards something the morgue, mass graves and other places. At least 21,000 Mariupol civilians were killed during the weeks of the Russian siege, according to estimates by the Ukrainian authorities.
The consequences of the war are felt outside of Eastern Europe as Ukrainian grain shipments continue to be unable to leave the country, driving up food prices.
A pregnant woman whose pelvis was crushed in a Russian bombing raid on Mariupol is evacuated. She died shortly after. Photo: AP file.
Ukraine, long known as “the granary of Europe”, is one of the major exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil around the world, but much of that flow has been interrupted by the war and the Russian blockade of the Ukrainian Black Sea coast.
It is estimated that 22 million tons of wheat remain in Ukraine. Not being able to export them endangers the food supply of many developing countries, especially in Africa.
Russia came out on Wednesday in favor of a UN plan to establish a maritime corridor sure to allow Ukraine to resume its grain exports. Among other things, he asks Ukraine for the plan remove mines from the coasts near the port of Odessa on the Black Sea.
But Russia insists on this be authorized to inspect incoming ships looking for weapons. And Ukraine has expressed fears that the clearing of mines allow Russia to attack the coast. Ukrainian officials have said that the Kremlin’s assurances cannot be trusted.
On Wednesday, European Council President Charles Michel accused the Kremlin of “using up food supplies as a weapon and surround their actions in a Soviet-style web of lies. ”
Although Russia, which is also a major supplier of cereals to the rest of the world, has attributed the impending food crisis to Western sanctions against Moscow, the European Union has refuted this claim and assured that Russia is to blame. engage in a war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian peasants turned into soldiers. Photo: Reuters
“They are Russian ships and missiles those that block the export of crops and cereals ”, underlined Michel. “Russian tanks, bombs and mines prevent Ukraine from planting and harvesting.”
The West exempted wheat and other food from sanctions against Russia, but the US and EU imposed it extensive punitive measures against Russian ships. Moscow argues that such restrictions make it impossible to use its ships to export grain and also make other shipping companies reluctant to transport their products.
By Bernat Armangué and Yuras Karmanau, Associated Press
Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine.
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Source: Clarin
