Every fifth family in Ukraine is experiencing food shortages due to the Russian invasion, - UN
Ukraine, which before the full-scale war fed 400 million people worldwide annually, is now facing a food problem: in 80% of settlements near the front line, people face obstacles to accessing food
According to Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform, this was stated by Matthew Hollingsworth, a representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Ukraine, at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
According to his words, "today, about one in five Ukrainian families faces some degree of acute food shortage," especially near the war zone.
More than 900,000 people "still living within 30 km of the frontline" are facing the most acute food needs, which are exacerbated in winter, he added.
Hollingsworth stressed that "in one of the world's most important breadbaskets, hundreds of thousands of people living in close proximity to the fighting are now dependent on humanitarian and food aid".
According to the programme representative, WFP will provide food to about 750,000 of these people during the winter. In addition, another 1.5 million will receive cash assistance in areas directly affected by the hostilities.
He said that since mid-July, 31 attacks on facilities crucial to grain production and export have been documented. 28 of them were in Odesa region, where the "vital" Black Sea and Danube river terminals are located, "essential for world trade and food production".
By February 2022, Ukraine accounted for 9% of global wheat exports, 15% of corn and 44% of sunflower oil, the WFP representative reminded.
Ukraine has already suffered $40.2bn in losses to the agricultural sector, he said.
"We all need to focus our efforts on meeting the immediate needs of this country, particularly in the long term, to ensure that this agricultural hub will be quickly rebuilt and can help the world's hungry, because when the next food crisis hits, the world will need Ukraine again," Hollingsworth highlighted.
