Global food prices may skyrocket

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday Western sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine could send global food prices soaring, as Russia was one of the world's main producers of fertiliser, which is essential to global supply chains.

"Russia and Belarus are some of the biggest suppliers of mineral fertilisers. If they continue to create problems for the financing and logistics of the delivery of our goods, then prices will rise and this will affect the final product, food products," Putin said at a televised government meeting.

He also said Russia would ultimately emerge stronger and more independent after overcoming the difficulties caused by what he called the West's illegitimate sanctions.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said yesterday Moscow had ignored its plea for humanitarian access to rescue hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped under bombardment, as the opposing sides yielded nothing at the highest level talks since the Russian invasion began.

Local officials in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port under siege for 10 days, said Russian warplanes were again relentlessly bombing the city, a day after destroying a maternity hospital, in what Kyiv and Western allies called a war crime.

Moscow said the hospital was no longer functioning and had been occupied by Ukrainian fighters.

After meeting Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Turkey, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Lavrov had refused to promise to hold fire so aid could reach civilians, including Kyiv's main humanitarian priority - evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in Mariupol.

Aid agencies say humanitarian help is most urgently needed in Mariupol, a city of 400,000 before the war, where residents have been trapped with no food, water or power.

Attempts to send aid and evacuation convoys have failed for six days. Russian aircraft were targeting convoy routes yesterday, Petro Andrushenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor, told Reuters by phone.

Russian forces have advanced in the south but have yet to capture a single city in the north or east. Western countries have said they believe that after a planned lightning strike on Kyiv failed in the early days of the war Moscow has turned to tactics involving far more destructive assaults.

Britain's Defence Ministry said yesterday that a large Russian column northwest of Kyiv had made little progress in over a week and was suffering continued losses. It added that as casualties mount, Putin would have to draw reinforcements from across the armed forces.