The ministers of the European Union will discuss in Brussels today, Friday, the repercussions of the Russian war on Ukraine, in terms of the economy and food security, and a meeting will be held in Turin to discuss ways to support Kyiv in this war.

The Brussels meeting, which is being held by the European Foreign Affairs Council at the level of development ministers, comes amid warnings of a looming global food crisis.

Jochen Flaspart, a senior official at Germany's Ministry of Economic Development, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for a food crisis that will affect much of the world's population.

Upon his arrival at the meeting headquarters in Brussels, Flaspart said that Putin "has become an aggressor on vast parts of the world, especially in Africa and the Middle East, but also in Asia."

The German government says that Russia prevents the export of 20 million tons of grain from Ukraine primarily to North Africa and Asia, and that most of this amount is prevented from exporting through the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea.

EU ministers are discussing ways to alleviate global food shortages, including potential alternative export routes.


Germany is heading to present the project of forming an alliance for global food security, which was approved by the development ministers of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries on Thursday.

The Brussels meeting will discuss the effects of rising food and energy prices worldwide, in addition to financial balances and rising debt levels. The ministers will also discuss ways of European solidarity with partner countries suffering from the effects of war, in light of the high prices of energy and grains.

EU ministers are also concerned about what they describe as Russia's disinformation with the aim of linking rising food and energy prices to sanctions.

mutual accusations

On Thursday, the United States and Russia exchanged accusations at the UN Security Council of being responsible for the deterioration of global food security.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said during the meeting, which was held at the invitation of his country, "Stop disrupting the Black Sea ports. Allow free movement of ships, trains and trucks transporting food from Ukraine."

Blinken accused Russia of using starvation as a tool of war, and said Moscow's actions violate Security Council Resolution 2417, which condemns starvation of civilians.

On the other hand, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, denounced the existence of a Western intention to "hold Russia responsible for all the problems of the world," rejecting all Western accusations against his country.

Nebenzia said that the food crisis that the world is witnessing has been latent for a long time and its root causes are due to the "inflation spiral" due to increasing costs, logistical difficulties and "speculative operations in Western markets."

For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that solving the problem of food insecurity requires the reintegration of Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian products into global markets.

This year, the United Nations World Food Program reported that 276 million people worldwide suffer from severe hunger, and the number will rise by 47 million if the Ukraine war continues.


On the other hand, the foreign ministers of the Council of Europe will hold their first meeting today, Friday, in the Italian city of Turin, after Russia announced its withdrawal from the organization, to discuss their response to the war waged by Russia against Ukraine.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that helping Ukraine to confront Russian aggression is the organization's current priority, stressing that the war on Ukraine represents a threat to peace in Europe and the world.

For her part, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Maria Begsinovic Boric, said that the decision to remove Russia from the Council was fair, given what she described as Russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine.

She also announced the Council's support for the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office in investigations into human rights violations.

On the other hand, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyal said that the European Union has disbursed a new batch of its financial aid to Ukraine.

"Today, the European Union disbursed a new payment of 600 million euros under the Emergency Macroeconomic Financial Assistance Program for Ukraine," Shmyhal wrote on his Twitter account.