Vladimir Putin ‘arms’ the world’s food supply Business

It comes after Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, warned on Monday of “apocalyptic” rises in food prices and raised concerns about a disastrous impact on the developing world.

Official figures revealed on Wednesday that UK grocery bills rose at their fastest pace in more than a decade in April, helping to push inflation to a 40-year high of 9%.

The invasion of Ukraine has driven global food prices to record highs and sent key agricultural costs, including fuel and fertilizer, skyrocketing.

In Britain, the cost of cooking oils, dairy products and staples like pasta are rising rapidly, and the crisis is far more severe in countries where food accounts for a larger share of household spending.

Ukraine and Russia together produce a quarter of global wheat exports and a fifth of corn production, but the conflict is also driving up other costs for farmers around the world. Prices for fuel, fertilizer and animal feed jumped after the invasion, with Ukraine producing half of the world’s sunflower oil.

The UN warned earlier this week that nearly 25 million tonnes of wheat in Ukrainian warehouses are left to rot because supplies cannot leave the country. He also said that some grain warehouses were destroyed during the fighting in Ukraine.

It came as Moscow said on Wednesday that nearly 700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol, claims that have yet to be confirmed by Ukraine.

kyiv had ordered its Mariupol garrison to withdraw, but a pro-Russian separatist leader said commanders were still in tunnels under the Azovstal steelworks.

On Wednesday, a Russian soldier pleaded guilty to the murder of a Ukrainian civilian in the first war crimes trial since the start of the conflict. The hearing in a kyiv courtroom is part of a series of trials against Russian servicemen for atrocities committed during the invasion.

Meanwhile, Turkey vetoed a NATO decision on whether to accept Finland and Sweden into the military alliance in the first official vote on membership.

At a “classified” meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, the Turkish representative stopped a vote on their candidacies, which had been officially tabled earlier in the day, according to sources familiar with the discussion.

The meeting was convened in the hope of agreeing an expedited membership process to stave off Russian threats of aggression aimed at the Nordic nations.