Freeing Ukraine’s food supply to help feed the world will be difficult and dangerous.

Fears of a global food crisis are swelling as a Russian blockade of Ukrainian seaports and attacks on its grain warehouses have choked off one of the world’s breadbaskets, deepening fears that President Putin is using food as a powerful new weapon in his three-month-old war.

World leaders called for international action to deliver 20 million tons of grain trapped in Ukraine. Some warned that unless the port of Odesa is opened soon, there is a threat of famine in some countries and political unrest in others, in what could be the gravest global repercussion yet of Russia’s assault on its neighbor.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, accused Russian troops of confiscating Ukrainian grain stocks and agricultural machinery, Russian artillery of bombarding grain warehouses, and warships in the Black Sea of trapping Ukrainian cargo vessels laden with wheat and sunflower seeds. Read more

@nytimes