The war in Ukraine is now in its 91st day. Russia is facing growing calls to end its blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea that is preventing Ukraine from exporting grain. David Beasley of the U.N. World Food Programme condemned the blockade.

David Beasley: “Well, to keep the ports closed as the harvest season is now coming in in Ukraine in July and August, it means a declaration of war on global food security, if you can’t get the food out the fields. I mean, Ukraine grows enough food to feed 400 million people. In a time on planet Earth where we were facing an extraordinary food crisis before Ukraine, fuel costs, commodity prices, shipping costs were already doubling, tripling, quadrupling.”

Earlier today, a top Russian official said Moscow would consider allowing for a humanitarian corridor for ships carrying food to leave Ukraine, but only if the West agreed to lift some of its sanctions on Russia.