‘Hunger catastrophe looming’, Zelensky warns Jakarta town hall meeting, with Ukraine’s grain cut off from the world
- Ukrainian president says that in July, when previous year’s stocks in many countries are gone, there’ll be destitution; UN’s estimate of more than 40 million facing prospect of hunger this year is ‘conservative’
- His talk’s Indonesian organiser, Dino Patti Djalal, a former deputy foreign minister, says it’s ‘critical’ Zelensky talk to an Asian audience as some in the region wrongly believe the war is ‘a European problem’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that come July, the world will see the real extent of the food insecurity brought on by Russia’s invasion of his country when stocks from the previous year are used up and destitution will visit the “already poor”.
He said on Friday that the United Nation’s estimate of over 40 million people facing the prospect of hunger this year was “conservative” and a “catastrophe” is looming.
“In July, when many countries will see their stocks from the previous year depleted, it will become obviously clear that the catastrophe is coming closer,” Zelensky told a virtual ‘town hall’ meeting organised by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), a Jakarta-based civil society group promoting internationalism.
“You can check your prices at stores. You will see them increasing, a harbinger of destitution for those who are already poor and also for the middle class. This will bring political chaos for certain regions of the world,” said Zelensky.