UN warns of food security risks from Russian attacks on Black Sea ports
REUTERS/Victor Sayenko/File Photo
Russia’s resurgent air strike campaign targeting civilian
shipping and Ukrainian ports in the Black
Sea is creating substantial risks to global food security, Kayoko Gotoh,
head of the UN Department of Political Affairs, said on July 27.
Gotoh told a Security Council meeting that the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, Pivdennyi, Izmail, and Mykolaiv have been hit repeatedly. She said there have been more than six attacks on civilian vessels so far this month, leaving 44 crew members dead or wounded.
Citing data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Gotoh said world wheat prices have risen about 20 percent since the start of the month, reaching their highest level since March 2024.
Gotoh said Russian air strikes in Ukraine have killed more than 170 civilians and wounded 1,028 since the beginning of July. She said residential buildings, playgrounds, gas stations, markets and logistics warehouses have been hit, and that Kyiv has come under sustained attack: at least 56 civilians have been killed and 232 wounded in the capital this month alone. She also reported daily strikes with guided aerial bombs on frontline communities in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Since the full-scale invasion began, at least 16,141 civilians have been confirmed killed, including 803 children, and 48,613 people have been wounded, including 2,960 children, she said.
“These attacks are unacceptable, unjustified and must stop immediately,” the official said.
She also raised concerns about the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, noting that the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on July 15 that the plant had suffered its 22nd complete loss of off-site power since the start of the war, with 10 of those outages occurring in the past three months.
Gotoh urged the parties to renew diplomatic efforts and to
agree to an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire, calling it a necessary
step toward a just and lasting peace under the UN Charter and international
law.
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