UN official warns Putin ‘millions of people around the world will die’ if Ukraine’s ports remain closed

A UN official has warned that ‘millions of people around the world will die’ if Ukraine’s Black Sea ports remain closed.

As Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of the country continues, the war is disrupting global supply chains which could come to have a devastating effect further afield.

Ukraine and Russia are responsible for around 29 per cent of the wheat exported around the world, and they’re also major suppliers of metals and other materials.

Ukraine has even been labelled the “breadbasket of Europe” due to the significance of its wheat exports and now head of the United Nations World Food Programme, David Beasley, has spoken about the immense problems in supply chains caused by the invasion.

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He stressed the significance of opening the country's ports within the next two months, or else risk the deaths of millions and the collapse of Ukraine’s entire economy.

Putin's invasion is risking the lives of millinsKirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty

“Millions of people around the world will die because these ports are being blocked,” Beasley said at a trade conference, reports CNN.

“If you don‘t get this port issue resolved and open, Ukraine’s economy completely collapses. It becomes landlocked like Moldova. The ports are critical. World leaders have got to put pressure on Russia in such a way that we can have absolute neutrality to move supplies in and out of Odessa.”

Discussing what he would say to Putin, he replied: “If you have any heart at all for the rest of the world, regardless of how you feel about Ukraine, you need to open up those ports.”

It comes after UK president Joe Biden said that around 20 million tons of grain are currently being held in silos in Ukraine.

“Guess what?” Biden previously said. “If those tons don‘t get to market, an awful lot of people in Africa are going to starve to death because they are the sole supplier of a number of African countries.”

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