SVE NEWS & CNBC Sharing Series — Ukraine warns of multi-year food crisis; Zelenskyy says situation in Donbas ‘very difficult’

Global food prices are already soaring because of the war in Ukraine, with ships blocked from exporting the country’s staple produce, like wheat.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has now warned that the blockade could lead to a multi-year food crisis.

“This is only the beginning and if we allow Putin to continue this military madness, the crisis will go deeper and deeper,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the World Economic Forum.

“If Russia does not lift its blockade … Ukrainian grain will be getting rotten. If this problem is not resolved, Ukrainian farmers will not plant another crop and the whole agricultural cycle in Ukraine will be interrupted and that will mean a multi-year food crisis.”

Kuleba said countries were already feeling the pressure of rising food prices. The European Commission and U.S. have accused Russia of weaponizing food supplies in the war but Russia denies that, instead blaming Western sanctions.

A Russian minister said Wednesday that Moscow would consider humanitarian corridors for ships exporting produce, in return for a relaxation of international sanctions.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister has added to criticism of Henry Kissinger’s suggestion that Ukraine should consider ceding territory to Russia in order to bring about peace.

“I respect Henry Kissinger but I appreciate that he’s not holding any official position in the U.S. administration, he has his own opinion, but we strongly disagree with it,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, told CNBC Wednesday.

“This is not something we’re going to do,” he added.

Kuleba said Ukraine had followed a policy of constructive dialog with Russia even after it annexed Crimea in 2014, but this had not brought about a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Donbas region where there has been fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces over the last eight years.

“It never worked and in the end it brought us all to the biggest war in Europe since World War II. If it failed once, it will fail twice,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

A Ukrainian MP has given what he called a “polite” reply to Henry Kissinger’s suggestion that Ukraine should be prepared to cede some territory to Moscow in order to reach a peace deal.

“I think Mr Kissinger still lives in the 20th century and we are in the 21st century and we are not going to give up any inch of our territory,” Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, told CNBC Wednesday. “That would be the worse signal to Putin,” he added.

“We should stop Putin now and not let him go further,” Goncharenko said, adding that he believed the best way to establish peace was to bring Ukraine inside the European Union as quickly as possible.

Former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger caused a stir earlier this week when he suggested that Ukraine should be prepared to cede some territory to Russia in order to reach a peace deal with Moscow.

Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum on Monday, Kissinger said “ideally, the dividing line should return to the status quo ante,” meaning a return to the existing state of affairs before the war, suggesting that he thought that Russia should be allowed to retain Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Kissinger, who served under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford, said that “pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine … but a new war against Russia itself.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out ceding any land to Russia as part of a deal, particularly in reference to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are currently focusing on seizing. It’s unclear whether Kyiv might accept that Crimea remains in Russian hands, however.

— Holly Ellyatt and Sam Meredith

“We clearly see the consequences of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, it’s sending shock waves around the world, and the world economic growth forecast has been revised downwards considerably and the same is true in the EU,” Valdis Dombrovskis, European vice president and commissioner for trade for the European Commission, told CNBC on Wednesday.

Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which has been focused on the plight of Ukraine as Russia’s invasion continues, as well as the global fallout from the war, Dombrovskis said the EU needed to act urgently to sever its energy ties with Russia.

The invasion has led the EU to scramble to reduce its reliance on Russian gas supplies although an EU-wide embargo on oil and gas from Russia is still not agreed upon.

“We urgently need to move away from our dependence on Russian fossil fuels,” Dombrovskis said.

— Holly Ellyatt

A Russian official has reportedly said Moscow is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for ships carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions.

“We are always ready for dialogue with everyone who strives for peace, for a peaceful resolution of all problems,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency interfax.

“We have repeatedly spoken out on this subject that the solution to the food problem requires a comprehensive approach,” he said, “including the removal of sanctions restrictions that were imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions.”

Russia is ready to provide the necessary humanitarian passage, Rudenko claimed.

On Tuesday, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accused Russia of “weaponizing” food supplies in Ukraine by blocking exports of basic produce from the country, such as wheat and cooking oil. Global food prices have risen as a result of the reduced exports. Russia denies it is using food to pressure Ukraine’s allies into loosening sanctions.

Andrius Tursa, Central and Eastern Europe advisor at Teneo Intelligence, said in a note Wednesday that “there are no easy ways to unblock food exports via Ukraine’s Black Sea ports,” and that alternative export routes via land and rivers require time and investment to eliminate infrastructural and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

“The war will significantly lower Ukraine’s food production and exports for the foreseeable future,” Tursa said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said the rising prices of food, fuel and fertilizers — largely brought on by the war in Ukraine — is having an impact on the African economy.

“We should still work together to find solutions” to end the war, he said.

— Holly Ellyatt