The head of the U.N. World Food Program said people are being “starved to death” in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and he predicted the country’s humanitarian crisis is likely to worsen as Russia intensifies its assault in the coming weeks.
World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley also warned in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press in Kyiv that Russia’s invasion of grain-exporting Ukraine risks destabilizing countries far from its shores and could trigger waves of migrants seeking better lives elsewhere.
The war, which began Feb. 24, is “devastating the people in Ukraine,” he said, lamenting the lack of access the food program and other aid organizations face in reaching those in need amid the conflict.
“I don’t see any of that easing up. I just don’t see it happening right now,” he said, NBC News reports.
