“It is time to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine and get on the path of diplomacy and peace,” says UN Secretary General Secretary General António Guterres.

Starvation in the Global South.

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We are over 100 days of war in Ukraine.

The death and destruction being visited upon the ordinary citizens of Ukraine continues, but what you don’t hear from Moscow or the U.S. and the NATO military alliance are the words: peace, negotiations or de-escalation of the conflict.

In fact, to even suggest such a thing brings disdain.

Of course, Ukrainians have the right to defend themselves. At the same time, Russia and the West are not adverse to using Ukraine to test each other and to use as a proxy war.

These are great times for the manufacturers of bombs and the merchants of death.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres not only expresses the same concerns I do about the danger of this war spiraling into a wider nuclear confrontation. Guterres worries about the impact right now on countries in the Global South who are threatened by starvation as a result of the war.

“Whatever the outcome, this war will have no winners, only losers,” said Guterres to reporters outside the UN Security Council chambers in March.

Besides the hour-to-hour devastation inside Ukraine, the UN chief said the war was reaching far beyond its borders, with a Sword of Damocles now hanging over the global economy – “especially the developing world”.

For months now, developing countries have been struggling to recover from the pandemic – with record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens, while their ability to respond has been “erased by exponential increases in the cost of financing.

“Now their breadbasket is being bombed”, he said. 

Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil and about 30 percent of the world’s wheat, he added, noting that Ukraine alone provides more than half of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) wheat supply.

“Food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing.  Supply chains are being disrupted.  And the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods – when available – are at record levels.

“All of this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe.”

He said 45 African and least developed countries import at least a third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, with 18 of those, import at least 50 percent.

“We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system. In addition, we are seeing clear evidence of this war draining resources and attention from other trouble-spots in desperate need. 

“In a word, developing countries are getting pummelled.” (UN News)