With few good solutions — one option seems to be a risky naval escort — the United States and its allies tried to make it clear who they feel is responsible.
Accusing Russia of blackmail, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week that the Kremlin was holding back its own grain supplies after attacking Ukrainian storage facilities and seizing stocks, while blocking the country s ports.
The consequences of these shameful acts are there for everyone to see. She said in an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, it was the fragile countries and vulnerable populations that suffer the most.
In the Middle East and Africa, Ukraine and Russia account for a third of the global wheat and barley exports, which countries in the Middle East and Africa rely on to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidized bread.
Food prices are going up because of the lack of Ukrainian grain, and countries already facing shortages of famine. The leaders at Davos stressed the link between the blocked ports of Odesa and the millions of people threatened with starvation in countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, Lebanon, Somalia and beyond.
It's possible that that pain could last for years around the globe.
Because many farmers have missed a crucial planting window, not only can they not move the sunflowers, wheat, corn and other farm commodities they have stored, but they may not have grown much by the time the next harvest arrives.
The invasion of a country that provided a fifth of the world's nutrient supply for fertilizer is also having a negative effect on crop yields in nations thousands of miles away, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center. Russia and Belarus, which have been subject to sanctions since the invasion, account for 40 percent of the crop nutrient potash.
U.N. Secretary-General Ant nio Guterres warned last week that dwindling food supplies caused by the war in Ukraine, the Pandemic and climate change could lead to global unrest.
If we do not feed people, we feed conflict, he said.
Russia denies it is at fault and has tried to shift blame to the West.
The Kremlin indicated this week it was willing to lift the blockade and export its own grain and fertilizer if the U.S. and its allies lift sanctions in the wake of the invasion.
A Ukrainian explosive disposal unit had to dig out a missile from a farm field NBC News visited near Kyiv this month before farmers could lay seed. Trenches and foxholes were still dug into parts of the land.
Farm workers had an estimated schedule of eight hours of work, eight hours of service in territorial defense and eight hours of sleep when Russian forces advanced toward the capital. Locals with Kalashnikovs still maintain strict checkpoints near fields and agricultural infrastructure.
While the Kremlin's forces are long gone, there is still a lingering fear that Russian missiles will target grain storage and farm fields to undermine the Ukrainian economy, said Taras Ivanyshyn, investment director of Agro-Region, located on a dirt road that adjoins a field owned by his company.
Ivanyshyn explained that the main challenge is moving the tons of grain stuck in their stores.