A humanitarian mission must be launched in the Black Sea to allow Ukraine to get its grains and other crops to the world, or "people will be starving" while the war-torn country will be forced to destroy its harvest, Kira Rudik, a member of Ukraine's Parliament, warned on Newsmax on Friday.
"Ukraine is still producing the grains and sunflower oil and tomatoes and corn," Rudik told Newsmax's "Wake Up America," adding that within a month, "we will not be able to get it anywhere. We will basically have to burn it, and this will be another tragedy that will be happening on one side of the world. We will be just destroying the harvest because there is nowhere to store it, and there is no way to get it out."
Rudik's comments come a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that millions of people worldwide could starve because of the Russian blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports. The Russian invaders have taken over large sections of the country's coasts and are blocking farmers from exporting their crops.
"We are calling for a humanitarian mission from all the nations of the world, or at least leaders of the democratic world, such as the United States, United Kingdom, and European countries to come as one and help out to unblock our ports and get the grains that we have," Rudik told Newsmax.
She noted that when she visited the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago, it was reported that the world has about 10 weeks of grain supplies left.
At that time, Sara Menker, CEO of agriculture analytics firm Gro Intelligence, told the U.N. Security Council that the world's stored wheat supply is down to 10 weeks, but said the war isn't the cause of a fuel shortage crisis but has "simply added fuel to a fire that was long burning," reports Insider, quoting a UN report.
Ukraine, long considered the world's breadbasket, and Russia, combined, makeup almost a third of the world's wheat exports.
Kirik told Newsmax that it's not just a matter of opening the ports, but there must be strict security guarantees in place.
"Once we unlock the ports, it will be very easy for Russians to attack us," said Rudik. "We need as many countries involved in that as possible to save the world from time, and we need to make sure that we do not expose ourselves and our 1,000 cities from additional attacks from Russia."
Ukraine knows that Russian President Vladimir Putin "will use this particular opportunity against us," she added. "This is why we need to be absolutely sure that it is safe to get the humanitarian convoy in and out."
The United Nations, though, can't be trusted to help with the crisis, as Russia is still part of the organization and has veto power, said Rudik.
"We cannot trust an organization that has Russia as a member of the Security Council," she said. "The main question right now is in saving the world from the famine crisis is trust. I can tell you we can only trust the countries that are supporting us right now, the United States, the United Kingdom, European countries, and Turkey, but we definitely cannot trust anybody who is supporting Russia."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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