“We are entering an unprecedented food crisis.” Emmanuel Macron proposed Thursday, March 24, during the G7 and NATO summits, an emergency plan for food security, in conjunction with the African Union, to deal with the lack of supply of wheat and cereals from Russia and Ukrainians from several countries.
This plan aims to combat the food crisis “very serious” which could hit the countries dependent on these exports. He dreads “massive political consequences in several countries”. Franceinfo summarizes what to remember from the developments of the day.
NATO will respond if Russia uses chemical weapons
NATO and the G7 fear the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Westerners found the risk of a chemical attack very credible on Thursday, against which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned them in a video intervention from kyiv. “We will respond if Russia uses it. The nature of the response will depend on the nature of this use”said US President Joe Biden after the NATO and G7 summits in Brussels.
The G7 wants Putin and his backers to be ‘accountable’
The G7 countries assured Thursday that they “would spare no effort“so that the Russian president and his supporters, including the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, “be accountable”. “The Russian population must know that we have no grievances against them”added the G7 countries.
The UN “demands” an immediate end to the conflict
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted by an overwhelming majority of 140 votes a new text calling on Russia to stop “immediate” of the war. The text had been debated since Wednesday morning. He “demands an immediate cessation of hostilities by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in particular of all attacks against civilians and civilian objects”.
NATO to help Ukraine against chemical threats
NATO will provide Ukraine with protective equipment against chemical, biological and nuclear threats, announced the Alliance’s Secretary General. Four new battlegroups will be deployed in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia to strengthen NATO’s defenses on its eastern flank. Ukrainian President accuses Russia of using “phosphorus bombs”. And for him, “the risk of large-scale use of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine is very real”.
New deadly bombardments
At least five people died, including two children, and six others injured in Russian strikes near Luhansk (east), explained the governor of the region, who accuses the Russians of dropping phosphorus bombs. In Kharkiv (north-east), at least six civilians were killed and 15 others injured in a bombardment, according to the regional governor. The strike hit a post office near where residents were receiving humanitarian aid, he said, denouncing a new “crime of the Russian occupiers”.
New sanctions from London and Washington
London announced new sanctions targeting 59 Russian personalities and companies and six Belarusian entities, as did Washington, which sanctions the political world, oligarchs and 48 “large public enterprises” of the defense sector. The G7 and the EU will sanction any transaction involving Russian gold reserves to prevent the country from circumventing financial isolation measures taken by the West, the White House has announced.