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The EU Commission wrote in a paper that Russia is “deliberately” targeting food storages in Ukraine to cause havoc across the world. The EU executive told EU agriculture ministers gathering in Brussels today that “Food security in war-torn Ukraine is of great concern, particularly as Russia seems to be deliberately targeting and destroying food stocks and storage locations”.
The paper urges EU leaders to produce and export more wheat as a halt on supplies from Ukraine is prompting prices to surge.
But the bloc’s efforts to blame Russia for the situation failed to impress Ukraine.
A Ukrainian diplomat told Politico: “We [still] don’t get enough supplies.”
They added: “I can’t say they do nothing, they [do] support.”
However, Politico pointed out that “it was clear that the diplomat was not impressed by the progress made so far on responding to Kyiv’s request for farming inputs and supplies”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told global business leaders on Monday the world must increase sanctions against Russia to deter other countries from using “brute force” to achieve their aims.
Mr Zelensky spoke via video link to the World Economic Forum in Davos as the Ukrainian military claimed to have held off a Russian assault on Sievierodonetsk, an eastern city that has become the main target of a Russian offensive after the surrender of the southern port city of Mariupol last week.
The Ukrainian President also revealed Ukraine’s worst military losses from a single attack of the war on Monday, saying 87 people had been killed last week when Russian forces struck a barracks housing troops at a training base in the north.
Previously, Kyiv had said eight people died in the May 17 strike on the barracks in the town of Desna.
In the first of what could be many war crimes trials arising from Russia’s February 24 invasion, a court in Kyiv sentenced a young Russian tank commander to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian.
READ MORE: Russia facing ‘sudden and catastrophic defeat—Putin ‘will not survive’
He demanded an oil embargo, the blockage of all Russian banks and termination of all trade. Foreign businesses should withdraw completely from Russia and the Russian IT industry should be cut off from the West, he said.
The United States, the European Union and other entities have already imposed broad sanctions on Russia, and on Monday Starbucks Corp became the latest Western brand to announce it was pulling out of the country.
The Seattle-based coffee chain has 130 stores in Russia. Its decision follows a similar move by McDonald’s.
The fast food chain’s trademark “Golden Arches” were lowered near Moscow on Monday.
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