Thread by @Beltrew

The war in Ukraine threatens to unleash an “unprecedented wave” of global hunger & destitution according to the UN. I travelled to Donbas, Kharkiv, Dnipro& Kyiv to meet farmers trying to harvest under shelling, missile fire & recent Russian occupation (🧵)independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…

2. Right on cue, a shell landed in the field behind us as we spoke to this farmer in Donetsk (L) about the advancing frontline. In Dnipro while talking to a farmer, air defence shot down a missile above our heads (as seen in the pic). In Kharkiv the sound of shelling was constant

3. They all said even if they can harvest in this nightmare with mined fields, destroyed equipment & under fire, they can’t store their grains or sell them for export as Ukraine’s ports remain blocked. A deal may be signed today but Ukrainians are sceptical it will be implemented

4. In Kharkiv Russian soldiers deliberately torched Lubov’s livestock pens burning alive 70 animals (the screams still haunt her). They mined her fields. One of her staffers (below) drove over a mine in his tractor & nearly died. They also shot up her vehicles.

5. Her village was under occupation for a month-her grain stores were bombed, so she lost last year’s harvest. She doesn’t know how to do this year’s harvest with no tractors & even if they can,the price of wheat inside Ukraine is now 3 times less than what it costs to produce

6. Agriculture ministry told me nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s agricultural lands are unusable as they’re active frontlines,occupied or covered in mines, unexploded bombs. I spoke to one of Ukraine’s largest agrarian holdings: they’ve lost 70% of their fields,100s of staff missing

7. Why should the world care? Ukraine feeds 400 million people worldwide. It is the fifth-largest exporter of wheat& a major exporter of corn and barley. It is also responsible for 50 per cent of the global sunflower oil market. That has been utterly decimated by Putin’s invasion

8. Ukraine agriculture ministry told me Ukraine may lose 3 harvests causing worldwide hunger, triggering conflict& migration. “We cannot sell last year’s harvest. This year’s harvest: forget selling it, we cannot even store it. Next harvest won’t happen with no incentive to sow”

9. If the crisis isn’t sorted 40 percent of farmers in Ukraine will go bankrupt - head of Ukraine’s millers union told me. “Ukraine could stop being a farming nation and breadbasket, it will change the country and food markets of the world. It will be like we regressed 30 years”

10. There is a deal being signed between Turkey & Russia today on opening Ukraine’s ports but Ukrainian officials I spoke to were sceptical - they said how can they trust Russia if it continues to bomb Ukrainian farms & ports and to steal grain? Spoke to @LBC about it here:

https://twitter.com/lbc/status/1550479482041024512

11. As @mercycorps says today’s deal is welcomed but it won’t solve the global food crisis. You can read my full piece here independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…