Russia

The Russia-Ukraine grain deal that has been critical to keeping global food prices stable and preventing famine is currently in tatters. On July 17, 2023, Russia said it was pulling out of the year-old deal, which allowed shipments of grains and other foodstuffs to travel past the Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea. And to make matters worse, over the next two days Russia bombed the Ukrainian grain port of Odesa, destroying over 60,000 tons of grain. As a result, food prices have surged, with the cost of wheat, corn and soybeans in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere all skyrocketing. So, what is the grain deal, and why is it so important to the global food supply chain? Anna Nagurney is an expert on supply chains, including those involving perishable products like food, and is co-chair of the board of directors overseeing the Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine. She explains how important Ukrainian grain is to feeding the world – and why the Black Sea is a vita...

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. It seemed like a quiet night near the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine.Then suddenly a roar and the sound of flowing water.“We are now used to loud bangs and so I didn't think it was anything serious,” he said an inhabitant of the southern shore town of Nova Kakhovka.Within minutes water began flowing through a breach.And soon the passage crossing the Dnipro River was washed away.The dam built by the USSR in 1956, an important source of water for the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia, for the region's agriculture and for cooling the reactors of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, no longer existed while a massive wave of water began to flow downstream, causing a social, economic and ecological catastrophe. A torrent of water burst through a gaping hole in a dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, fl...

  The conflict of recent days in Ukraine, whose sovereignty is now hostage to Russian bombs, has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to seek shelter in surrounding countries.Faced with the ongoing humanitarian crisis at its borders, the European Union has said it is ready to provide assistance common answer, with a series of actions aimed primarily at ensuring the safety of the exiles. The first provides for an allocation in favor of neighboring European states:Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, towards which the refugees are headed.Sums intended to cover humanitarian aid will also be given to Ukraine itself to deal with internally displaced people.Alongside economic contributions, the establishment of a European "solidarity platform" is being discussed, to coordinate operations in collaboration with community agencies, the European Asylum Agency and Frontex, which will deal with all aspects of the humanitarian crisis . The most significant element of this response is ce...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked international indignation and a feeling of understandable and shareable compassion towards the population attacked and threatened by the bombings.Across Europe and beyond, countries have opened their borders to welcome Ukrainian asylum seekers and refugees. Read also >> Fleeing from Ukraine:first the children, then the white women and men and finally the Africans The decision unanimous of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) to invoke Directive 55 of 2001 on temporary protection, adopted over twenty years ago in the aftermath of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, gave Ukrainian citizens (with a limit, however, to those of other nationalities coming from the Eastern European country) access to various services social issues such as housing, education and healthcare by debureaucratizing each nation's laborious asylum process. The response to the crisis that broke out on February 24th is very different from what we have witnessed...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 has sent economic, social and political shock waves around the world. In a newly published policy brief, we and other researchers and conservation scientists describe how these effects extend to biodiversity conservation efforts far beyond Ukraine. Animals, plants and ecosystems don’t recognize political boundaries, so protecting them often requires international cooperation. Over many decades, countries have developed a network of international agreements and arrangements for protecting biodiversity. Now, however, the war at Russia’s hands is delaying a number of those efforts, stopping others, and even sending some into reverse. War and the spoon-billed sandpiper As one example, efforts to save the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) from extinction are now at risk as a result of the war in Ukraine. Russia’s treeless tundra, in the high Arctic, is the summer home of coun...