The Russian ambassador had heard enough about global food shortages caused by his nation’s invasion of Ukraine so, when it was his turn to speak, Vasily Nebenzya offered a classic Kremlinesque retort: He blamed the West.
If not for the West’s “unbridled sanctions hysteria” against Russia, Nebenzya told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, there would be no threat of starvation among Ukrainians; food would still flow from Ukraine, the “breadbasket of Europe,” to countries that need it. The United States and other Western nations can prevent food shortages, Nebenzya said, “no matter how much they try to shift blame” to Russia.
And, he added — because it’s in the Russian script — if “Ukrainian Nazis and radicals” would just lay down their arms, there would be no crisis.
