New York Times
Published, Tuesday, June 28, 2022
AS THE U.S. AND EUROPE contemplate further sanctions to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine, there is growing concern that the fallout is fueling an alarming hunger problem that will not easily be reversed, amid a combination of rising energy costs and constrained exports from Russia and Ukraine.
Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, has embraced and exacerbated the crisis, blocking exports of food and grain from the region and using the shortages as leverage to get Western sanctions rolled back. The region’s critical role in the food supply chain has meant a cascading effect, sending global food prices soaring.
Even as the scale of the crisis became more apparent, leaders of G7 nations yesterday moved close to embracing an aggressive but untried plan to manipulate the price of oil, the largest commodity market in the world. The plan would allow Russia to keep selling oil to the world but would sharply limit the price.
By the numbers: Russia and Ukraine combined export about 30 percent of the world’s wheat and 75 percent of its sunflower oil. Cutting off those supplies has prompted other governments to block exports as nations try to stockpile goods.
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