Putin’s hunger for vengeance starves millions far beyond Ukraine’s borders

From Khartoum to Beirut and from Kabul to Sana’a and beyond, the sounds of war in Ukraine find an echo in the angry shouts of people protesting against rising food prices and in the cries of hungry children whose aid rations have been cut because the grain that used to feed them is becoming too scarce and too expensive. 

The human and economic costs of Russia’s invasion are already unconscionably high but they could spiral even higher as vital exports from the “world’s breadbasket” grind to a halt, threatening millions of lives, livelihoods and possibly even political stability in fragile countries from Yemen to Ethiopia, from Iraq to Sudan, and from Egypt to Lebanon.