Food prices may increase after Vladimir Putin collapsed an UN-brokered agreement over claims the Royal Navy was helping Ukraine carry out a drone attack against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. A Whitehall source reported told the Telegraph: “Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of wheat and grain in the world. If you restrict the export of that good, the price of that good increases, and that is felt across the entire world. It will have an impact.”
On Saturday, Russia stopped its agreement to allow Ukraine to trade after accusing the Royal Navy of helping Ukraine carry out a drone attack.
The Ministry of Defence has said Russia was “peddling false claims of an epic scale”.
The grain agreement was described as a “beacon of hope” by the United Nations as it would supply some of the poorest countries with food.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the withdrawal from the agreement was “rather predictable”.
He also described it as “an absolutely transparent intention of Russia to return the threat of large-scale famine to Africa and Asia”.
The drone attack took place at Russia’s Black sea naval base in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea.
Russia claimed ships involved in the grain deal were targeted and only one minesweeper has been damaged.
However, this has not been independently verified.
The deal, named the Black Sea Grain Initiative, allowed Ukraine to resume exporting grain around the world after it had been blocked when Russia invaded the country in February.
A United Nations spokesman said they were currently in touch with Russia and added that it was “vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative”.
They also claimed that the deal was a critical humanitarian effort which allowed millions of people around the world to have access to food.
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Ukraine has accused Russia of attempting to blackmail the world by ending the trade deal.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said: “The primitiveness of Russian blackmail is in everything. Nuclear blackmail, energy, food, dirty bomb fiction.”
The White House has accused Russia of “weaponising food” and US President Joe Biden said the withdrawal would increase starvation.
President Biden condemned Russia for pulling out of the trade deal, and said it was “purely outrageous”.