The UN is “blocking” Russia from delivering aid to starving Ukrainians

UN officials have been “blocked” from accessing “besieged cities such as Mariupol, Nikolaev and Kherson” – raising fears of mass starvation in Ukrainian cities devastated by Russia’s military invasion.

Driving the news: This is according to the head of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, who told CBS journalist “60 Minutes” Scott Pelly in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the denial of access to food to civilians in eastern Ukrainian cities is “just wrong, evil.”

• Pelly asked Beasley during an interview in the Black Sea port of Odessa how many people could starve in Ukraine. “You have to accept that millions are at stake right now,” Beasley said.
• “Why would you deny innocent victims of military food, peaceful fighters?” Beasley added.

Status: The UN is conducting food aid programs in cities, including Odessa, which was also recently attacked by Russian airstrikes.

• Beasley said they have already reached about 2 million people. “We hope to increase to 4 million in the coming weeks and 6 million thereafter,” he said. “It will depend on two things: money and access.”

Note: Beasley said last month that “there is no doubt” that Russian forces used food as a weapon of war in Ukraine.

Reduction: In an interview with Peli, Beasley noted that Ukraine is the “breadbasket of the world” with enough food to feed 400 million people, so Russia’s military attack “created chaos for the world’s poorest of the poorest.” , but it would also “affect everyone”.

• “You are already seeing jumps in fuel prices, food prices, jumps in delivery costs,” he said.

Background: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Ukraine and Russia last month in an attempt to help civilians fleeing the war and those trapped in besieged Ukrainian cities with limited access to running water, electricity and food.

Between the lines: War crimes have been historically difficult to investigate and often even more difficult to prosecute, writes Lorin-Whitney Gotbrat of Axios.

The lack of food is “another catastrophic effect” of the Russian war, warns the USAID chief