70 million people around the world are pushed closer to starvation by the Russian war on Ukraine
70 million people around the world were pushed closer to starvation by the Russian war on Ukraine, Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Program David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council. He said that the 345 million people facing acute food insecurity in the 82 countries where the agency operates is 2,5 times the number of acutely food insecure people before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
“What was a wave of hunger is now a tsunami of hunger,” he said, pointing to rising conflict, the pandemic’s economic ripple effects, climate change, rising fuel prices, and the Russian war in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Beasley said, soaring food, fuel, and fertilizer costs have driven 70 million people closer to starvation.
