The head of the UN World Food Program (WFP or WFP, according to its acronym in English) states that people are “hungry” in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which predicts that the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is likely to worsen as Russia intensifies its attacks in the coming weeks.

WFP Executive Director David Beasley also warned in an interview with The Associated Press in kyiv that Russia’s aggression on grain exports to Ukraine is risky. destabilize countries far from its shore and can trigger wave of immigrants looking for a better life elsewhere.

The war that began on February 24 was “devastating to the people of Ukraine,” he said, lamenting lack of access WFP and other organizations face assistance in trying to reach those in need amid the conflict.

“I don’t see any improvement in that. I just don’t see it happening now, ”he said.

The continuous nature of the conflict, with the shift of fighting from areas around the capital and towards eastern Ukraine, has made it increasingly difficult to reach starving Ukrainians.

WFP is trying to get food supplies now to areas that could be caught in the fighting, but Beasley acknowledged that there are “a lot of complications” as the situation changes rapidly.

Lack of access is part of the problem, he said, but so are labor and fuel shortages resources are diverted to the war effort.

“It’s not just in the next few days, but it could be the next few weeks and months more complicated than now, “he said.” In fact, it’s getting worse and worse, concentrated in some places, and the front lines are shifting. “

Mariupol

Beasley expressed particular concern about the port city of Mariupol, where the dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders resisting the siege of Russia trapped over 100,000 civilians which desperately needs food, water and heat.

Russian forces control access to the city help is not admittedeven if WFP asks for access.

“We will not give up with the people of Mariupol and other people we cannot reach. But this is a devastating situation: the people are hungry“, he said.

Russia he was determined to take over the city so that its forces from the annexed Crimean peninsula could fully unite with the troops in the rest of the eastern region of the Donbas, the industrial heart of Ukraine and the purpose of the next offensive.

The UN food chief warned harmful effects of dominoes due to the role of Ukraine as major international supplier of grains.

A global food shortage caused by war could spark “mass migration more than anything we’ve seen since World War II,” he said, echoing comments he made in front of UN Security. Council last month.

Russia and Ukraine together produce 30% of the world’s wheat supply. and they export about three-quarters of the world’s sunflower seed oil. Half of the grain purchased by WFP for worldwide distribution is from Ukraine.

Associated Press

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