UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for action to mitigate the global consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict for the food, energy and financial systems, Xinhua News reported.

The conflict is intensifying the triple crisis – food, energy and financial – which is hitting the most vulnerable people, countries and economies of the world, he said at the presentation of the report of the Global Response Group on Food, Energy and Financial Crises.

“And all this is happening at a time when developing countries are already struggling with a number of problems that are not their handiwork: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and lack of access to adequate resources to finance reconstruction, in conditions of persistent and growing inequality,” he said. “We are now facing a ‘perfect storm’ that threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries.”

The report shows that the impact of the Ukrainian crisis is global and systemic, Guterres said.

According to him, 1.7 billion people, a third of whom already live in poverty, are now strongly affected by failures in the food, energy and financial systems, which leads to an increase in poverty and hunger.

36 countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, including the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries, the head of the world organization said. Food prices were already rising. But the Ukrainian crisis has worsened an already bad situation. At the same time, Russia is a key energy supplier. Oil prices rose by more than 60% over the past year, the same situation has developed with natural gas prices, which have increased by 50% in recent months. Fertilizer prices have more than doubled.

“As prices rise, hunger and malnutrition increase, especially among young children. Inflation is rising, purchasing power is declining, growth prospects are narrowing, development has stopped and in some aspects successes are decreasing,” he said. He also called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

The report “The Global Impact of the war in Ukraine on the food, energy and financial systems” is the first product of the Global Response Group to Food, Energy and Financial Crises, created by A. Guterres in March 2022.