World faces food crisis due to Ukraine war: Melnichenko

LONDON, March 14 Reuters- A global food crisis looms unless the war in Ukraine is stopped because fertilizer prices are soaring so fast that many farmers can no longer afford soil nutrients, Russian fertilizer and coal billionaire Andrei Melnichenko said on Monday.   

Several of Russia’s richest businessmen have publicly called for peace since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.  

“The events in Ukraine are truly tragic. We urgently need peace,” Melnichenko, 50, said in a statement.  
“One of the victims of this crisis will be agriculture and food,” he said.  Melnichenko is the founder of SUEK, Russia’s top coal producer and EuroChemone Russia’s biggest fertiliser producers.  

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced more than 2 million people, and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.