World Will Face a Food Crisis Following the Kakhovka HPP Destruction by Russians

The Russian-organized explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam will have a powerful impact on global food security, will lead to a rise in food prices and could cause drinking water problems for hundreds of thousands.

This was reported by Reuters, citing the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

“This is a breadbasket - that whole area going down towards the Black Sea and Crimea is a breadbasket not only for Ukraine but also for the world. We're in difficulties already on food security but food prices, I'm sure, are bound to increase. It is almost inevitable that we are going to see huge, huge problems in harvesting and sowing for the next harvest. And so what we are going to see is a huge impact on global food security - that's what's going to happen,” Griffiths told the BBC.

Ukraine is one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products, providing the world with wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.

Griffiths also noted that about 700,000 people directly depend on the Kakhovka reservoir as a source of clean drinking water. After the dam is blown up, people will be more vulnerable to diseases and infections, with children being the most at risk.

The Kakhovka dam was blown up by the Russian military at around 2:50 am on June 6, 2023 leading to flooding of at least 80 settlements, 32 of which are located in the Ukraine-controlled area. 2,718 people, including 190 children, were evacuated. Five people were killed, 35 more are missing, including 7 children. In total, there are 16 thousand people affected by the environmental terrorist attack

However, the dam destruction created a risk of malfunctioning of the EU's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia NPP, which used water from the Kakhovka HPP to cool six nuclear reactors.

The global consequences of the largest environmental and man-made disaster in the modern history of Europe, caused by a Russian terrorist attack on the territory of Ukraine, are still being assessed.