U.N. seeks deal on food exports as war drives up prices and hurts millions worldwide

Russia’s invasion has devastated and reshaped Ukraine, and its impact has also rippled out far beyond both countries’ borders, affecting millions worldwide by sending food and fuel prices soaring and driving up the cost of living, the United Nations reported on Wednesday.

The U.N. policy brief warns that no corner of the globe will escape unscathed, and it outlines how the war has “exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation.”

“Three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we face a new reality,” Secretary General António Guterres said, announcing the report’s findings. “For those on the ground, every day brings new bloodshed and suffering. And for people around the world, the war, together with the other crises, is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake.”

It’s the latest dejected but dire international assessment of the state of the world more than 100 days into the conflict, coming soon after the World Bank projected years of weak, potentially destabilizing growth for the global economy and the United Nations forecast multiple incoming food crises.

Guterres called for the flow of food and grain from Ukraine and Russia, stalled during the fighting, to resume immediately. Such a move is “essential for hundreds of millions of people in developing countries,” he said. Guterres also argued for increased economic support to low-income nations, urging global financial institutions to allow governments the flexibility to “borrow the money they need to keep their economies afloat.”

“We must act now,” Guterres said.

Top U.N. officials are at work on a package deal that would allow for the export of Ukrainian food products and would ensure Russian food and fertilizers can hit global markets, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Wednesday.

The war is exacerbating an already-dire food crisis worldwide, with Russia blockading millions of tons of grain at Ukraine’s ports and the Kremlin insisting Western sanctions are hampering its own exports. The two countries are among the largest sources of grain, and if a deal is not reached, “hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa,” will be imperiled, Guterres said.

U.N. negotiators are coordinating pentalateral talks with leaders in Moscow, Kyiv, Ukraine, Ankara, Turkey, Brussels and Washington, he said, but he declined to disclose details on the progress of those discussions. “This is one of those moments when silent diplomacy is necessary,” Guterres said. “And the welfare of millions of people around the world could depend on it.”

More than 100 days into the war, Ukrainian and Russian troops remain mired in heated combat for Severodonetsk, a city that is central to Moscow’s goal of capturing Donbas, an area of eastern Ukraine that encompasses the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. President Volodymyr Zelensky this week said that Ukraine’s goal is regaining full sovereignty over its territory and that a stalemate is “not an option.”

Here are some updates from across the country:

Severodonetsk: The regional governor vowed Wednesday that Ukrainian troops would not surrender, although he said it may be “necessary for our soldiers to withdraw to stronger positions.” Many residents have fled, though roughly 800 civilians are holed up in bunkers beneath a chemical plant in the city, according to an American lawyer acting for the plant’s owner. Russia claims to control 97 percent of the Luhansk region where the city is located.

Elsewhere in Donbas: Images collected by U.S. satellite company Maxar Technologies show the destructive path of Russia’s invasion in Luhansk and Donetsk, as it has trained its attacks on the eastern provinces in recent weeks — with cratered fields and entire city blocks pulverized. In Rubizhne, just up the road from Severodonetsk, before-and-after pictures show parts of the city reduced to rubble.

Crimea: Moscow claims it has restored rail and road links to the annexed Crimean Peninsula via Ukrainian cities it now controls — including Mariupol and Melitopol. Crimea’s pro-Russian leader, Sergey Aksyonov, said Wednesday that the roads are suitable for military purposes but that it is too soon to talk about civilian use. Capturing Mariupol last month after a bitter fight provided Russia with a vital land bridge to the peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Mariupol: The Russian military says the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk have been demined and are ready to ship grain. Russia’s blockade of Black Sea ports has raised fears of a global food crisis. The United Nations said Wednesday it is pursuing a deal that would allow grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea and unimpeded access to world markets for Russian food and fertilizers.

Zaporizhzhia: Zelensky has warned that Moscow is preparing to seize this major southeastern city that would give Russian troops better access to the center of Ukraine. Ukraine has appealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. secretary general to “liberate” the city’s nuclear power plant that has been held by Russian forces since March. Russia maintains the plant is in good order.

Reis Thebault and Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that he had met with Howard G. Buffett, son of the billionaire investor Warren Buffett, in Kyiv.

In a Twitter post, Zelensky said he appreciated “this signal of solidarity” with Ukraine. He said he expressed gratitude to Howard Buffett for the humanitarian support he has given and invited him to get involved in additional efforts. Those efforts include projects to restore irrigation systems in the Odessa area and remove mines, Zelensky said.

A director of Berkshire Hathaway, the company his father founded, Buffett is chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The foundation has donated millions of dollars in support of Ukraine, including an $11 million donation to World Central Kitchen, which funded meal kits distributed to families affected by Russia’s invasion.

Buffett reportedly traveled to Ukraine earlier this year. He said in a recent interview with a radio station that the war has had “an impact that I don’t think I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

A Russian radio station’s news bulletin was interrupted Wednesday by Ukrainian anthems and antiwar songs, in what the editor in chief called an apparent hack.

Kommersant FM’s online broadcast suddenly began playing the Ukrainian patriotic song “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow,” BBC Monitoring reporter Francis Scarr wrote on Twitter.

The station’s editor in chief, Alexei Vorobyov, confirmed the incident to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass, saying it appeared the internet stream had been hacked. He said technicians are investigating the origin of the attack.

While Kommersant FM was hacked, the station also played the Ukrainian anthem and the song “We Don’t Need War” by the Russian rock band Nogu Svelo.

Sonny Alaniz was headed home after midnight when his ATV lurched to a stop on a rural Texas road, the gas tank undeniably drained.

The nursing student and his seven passengers, who had been out celebrating his 22nd birthday that last Saturday in May, had little choice but to hop out and push. They slogged three miles before someone arrived with fuel, only to find the four-wheeler still wouldn’t start and had to be towed. “Next time, I’ll just stay home,” he joked.

It’s a familiar predicament, especially as the incessant run-up in prices has motorists testing the limits of their fuel gauges: AAA fielded 50,787 out-of-gas calls in April, a 32 percent jump from the same month last year. More than 200,000 drivers have been similarly stranded this year, the automobile club said. And gas prices have risen precipitously since April, making the financial pain even more acute.

Fuel prices began their most recent surge after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, upsetting energy markets. The U.S. average for a gallon of gas has swelled 62 percent, to $4.96, since last year, AAA data shows.

It was just before sundown when two soldiers wearing black balaclavas burst into the Mariupol basement where Kateryna had been sheltering with neighbors since the first days of the war.

For a fleeting moment, the 19-year-old hoped the soldiers might be Ukrainian, though she knew that was unlikely in the Russian-held area.

She quickly realized they were Chechen fighters from Russia’s North Caucasus region, part of a force that gained a reputation for particularly harsh cruelty toward civilians who remained in the Ukrainian port city. The soldiers boasted about the superior uniforms given to their units.

They had rifles slung over their shoulders, she recalled, and they seemed drunk.