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US, Britain say they are aware of unconfirmed reports of a chemical attack in Mariupol and are investigating 
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KIAMBU COUNTY, KENYA — Monica Kariuki is about ready to give up on farming. What is driving her off her about 40,000 square feet (10 acres) of land outside Nairobi isn’t bad weather, pests or blight — the traditional agricultural curses — but fertilizer: It costs too much.

Despite thousands of miles separating her from the battlefields of Ukraine, Kariuki and her cabbage, corn and spinach farm are indirect victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The war has pushed up the price of natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and has led to severe sanctions against Russia, a major exporter of fertilizer. 

Kariuki used to spend 20,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $175, to fertilize her entire farm. Now, she would need to spend five times as much. Continuing to work the land, she said, would yield nothing but losses.

“I cannot continue with the farming business. I am quitting farming to try something else,” she said. 

Higher fertilizer prices are making the world’s food supply more expensive and less abundant, as farmers skimp on nutrients for their crops and get lower yields. While the ripples will be felt by grocery shoppers in wealthy countries, the squeeze on food supplies will land hardest on families in poorer countries. It could hardly come at a worse time: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last week that its world food-price index in March reached the highest level since it started in 1990. 

The fertilizer crunch threatens to further limit worldwide food supplies, already constrained by the disruption of crucial grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia. The loss of those affordable supplies of wheat, barley and other grains raises the prospect of food shortages and political instability in Middle Eastern, African and some Asian countries where millions rely on subsidized bread and cheap noodles. “Food prices will skyrocket because farmers will have to make profit, so what happens to consumers?” said Uche Anyanwu, an agricultural expert at the University of Nigeria.

The aid group Action Aid warns that families in the Horn of Africa are already being driven “to the brink of survival.” 

The U.N. says Russia is the world’s No. 1 exporter of nitrogen fertilizer and No. 2 in phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Its ally Belarus, also contending with Western sanctions, is another major fertilizer producer. 

Many developing countries — including Mongolia, Honduras, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico and Guatemala — rely on Russia for at least a fifth of their imports. 

The conflict also has driven up the already-exorbitant price of natural gas, used to make nitrogen fertilizer. The result: European energy prices are so high that some fertilizer companies “have closed their businesses and stopped operating their plants,” said David Laborde, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

For corn and cabbage farmer Jackson Koeth, 55, of Eldoret in western Kenya, the conflict in Ukraine was distant and puzzling until he had to decide whether to go ahead with the planting season. Fertilizer prices had doubled from last year. 

Koeth said he decided to keep planting but only on half the acreage of years past. Yet he doubts he can make a profit with fertilizer so costly. 

Greek farmer Dimitris Filis, who grows olives, oranges and lemons, said “you have to search to find” ammonia nitrate and that the cost of fertilizing a 10-hectare (25-acre) olive grove has doubled to 560 euros ($310). While selling his wares at an Athens farm market, he said most farmers plan to skip fertilizing their olive and orange groves this year. 

“Many people will not use fertilizers at all, and this as a result, lowers the quality of the production and the production itself, and slowly, slowly at one point, they won’t be able to farm their land because there will be no income,” Filis said. 

In China, the price of potash — potassium-rich salt used as fertilizer — is up 86% from a year earlier. Nitrogen fertilizer prices have climbed 39% and phosphorus fertilizer is up 10%. 

In the eastern Chinese city of Tai’an, the manager of a 35-family cooperative that raises wheat and corn said fertilizer prices have jumped 40% since the start of the year. 

“We can hardly make any money,” said the manager, who would give only his surname, Zhao. 

Terry Farms, which grows produce on about 90,000 000 square feet (2,100 acres) largely in Ventura, California, has seen prices of some fertilizer formulations double; others are up 20%. Shifting fertilizers is risky, Vice President William Terry said, because cheaper versions might not give “the crop what it needs as a food source.” 

As the growing season approaches in Maine, potato farmers are grappling with a 70% to 100% increase in fertilizer prices from last year, depending on the blend. 

“I think it’s going to be a pretty expensive crop, no matter what you’re putting in the ground, from fertilizer to fuel, labor, electrical and everything else,” said Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board. 

In Prudentopolis, a town in Brazil’s Parana state, farmer Edimilson Rickli showed off a warehouse that would normally be packed with fertilizer bags but has only enough to last a few more weeks. He’s worried that, with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of letting up, he’ll have to go without fertilizer when he plants wheat, barley and oats next month. 

“The question is: Where Brazil is going to buy more fertilizer from?” he said. “We have to find other markets.” 

Other countries are hoping to help fill the gaps. Nigeria, for example, opened Africa’s largest fertilizer factory last month, and the $2.5 billion plant has already shipped fertilizer to the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. 

India, meanwhile, is seeking more fertilizer imports from Israel, Oman, Canada and Saudi Arabia to make up for lost shipments from Russia and Belarus. 

“If the supply shortage gets worse, we will produce less,” said Kishor Rungta of the nonprofit Fertiliser Association of India. “That’s why we need to look for options to get more fertilizers in the country.” 

Agricultural firms are providing support for farmers, especially in Africa where poverty often limits access to vital farm inputs. In Kenya, Apollo Agriculture is helping farmers get fertilizer and access to finance. 

“Some farmers are skipping the planting season and others are going into some other ventures such as buying goats to cope,” said Benjamin Njenga, co-founder of the firm. “So, these support services go a long way for them.” 

Governments are helping, too. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it was issuing $250 million in grants to support U.S. fertilizer production. The Swiss government has released part of its nitrogen fertilizer reserves.

Still, there’s no easy answer to the double whammy of higher fertilizer prices and limited supplies. The next 12 to 18 months, food researcher LaBorde said, “will be difficult.” 

The market already was “super, super tight” before the war, said Kathy Mathers of the Fertilizer Institute trade group. 

“Unfortunately, in many cases, growers are just happy to get fertilizer at all,” she said. 
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Greece’s conservative government on Monday denied any role in an alleged case of surveillance of an investigative journalist via spyware in his mobile phone.

The statement from the government came after Greek investigative website Inside Story on Monday alleged that financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis had had his phone hacked.

Its story cited a three-page report by the Canadian laboratory Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto, which had revealed several cases of this kind of espionage.

Koukakis’ phone had been infected with a spyware called Predator between July 12 and September 24 last year, said the Citizen Lab report.

The malware could not only record conversations but also hack the phone’s passwords, photos, internet history and contacts.

Spokesperson Yannis Economou denied that the government had had any role in the affair, calling for “the competent authorities to do their job to clear up this affair and for justice to be done.”

Posting on Twitter, Koukakis noted the government statement and said he was awaiting the findings of an investigation by the ADAE, the Greek body responsible for communications security and privacy.

His investigations have included series on a Greek bank, expenses claims at the migration ministry, and defense contracts.

The Global network for Independent Journalism tweeted on Monday that it was “alarmed” at reports that the Predator spyware had been used to spy on Koukakis.

“We will be demanding answers from the Greek government,” it added.

This latest affair follows a row last November after the Greek left-wing daily Efsyn published internal intelligence memos on political activists – and on one journalist.

A government minister at the time denied there was any state surveillance of journalists in Greece.

According to Citizen Lab, the Predator malware was developed by a business called Cytrox, which is based in neighboring North Macedonia.

 
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Austria’s chancellor held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, amid warnings that the Kremlin is preparing to launch a large offensive in the eastern Donbas region. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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As in 2017, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen will meet in a runoff later this month, after placing first and second in Sunday’s first round of presidential elections, with about 27% and 23% of the vote, respectively. Macron is favored to win a second term, but polls show a tight race — and a chance for a far-right victory. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA.  
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A United Nations agreement aimed at sparing populated areas from explosive weapons is near completion and is expected to be finalized in early June. Some 200 delegates from more than 65 states participated in negotiations last week at the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva. 

The new international agreement would oblige states to reduce harm to civilians by limiting the use of explosive weapons including airstrikes, multi-barrel rocket systems, and mortars in cities and towns.

These weapons are designed for use in open battlefields and have devastating consequences when used in populated areas.

An NGO coalition, the International Network on Explosive Weapons, reports the use of heavy explosive weapons in cities and towns kills and wounds tens of thousands of civilians every year and lays waste to civilian infrastructure.

This is borne out by recent data from Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iraq, Gaza, Yemen, and Syria where 90 percent of the victims were civilians.

Despite the heavy toll caused by these weapons, the network reports that several states, including Belgium, Canada, Israel, Turkey, Britain, and the United States, sought to weaken the text of the agreement.

The coordinator of the International Network on Explosive Weapons, Laura Boillot, says these states argue that the new agreement should re-affirm what International Humanitarian Law already obliges them to do and not go beyond that.

Without mentioning Russia by name, Boillot says more is needed.

“The situation in Ukraine, where we are seeing extensive use and widespread use of a range of different explosive weapons from air-dropped bombs, rocket systems missiles into major towns and cities in Ukraine is making it very difficult for States to not take this issue seriously,” she said.

Boillot notes there were strong calls for a more humanitarian-centered text by states such as Chile and Mexico, Togo and Nigeria, as well as Austria and New Zealand.

Alma Taslidzan is the network’s civilian advocacy manager. She says discussions are still ongoing regarding the extent of assistance to victims. She says any assistance should include people injured, and families of those killed and injured.

“It includes that ensuring basic needs are met and safe access to provisions of first medical care, emergence medical care, because that is very important. Then physical rehabilitation to those that have lost their limbs. Psycho-social support is something that is often forgotten but is extremely important and has to be tackled,” she said.

Russia and Syria have stayed away from the talks. China also did not participate in this negotiating round, although they have taken part previously in the process. Network activists say they hope to see China involved when final discussions are held in June.
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Russian former reporter Ivan Safronov said ahead of the resumption of his treason trial on Monday that he plans to vigorously fight the charges against him and does not fear the prospect of being jailed.

Safronov, who covered military affairs for the Vedomosti and Kommersant newspapers before becoming an aide to the head of Russia’s space agency two months before his arrest in July 2020, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

He denies accusations of passing military secrets about Russian arms sales in the Middle East and Africa to the Czech Republic, a NATO member, while he worked as a reporter in 2017, calling them “a complete travesty of justice and common sense.”

His detention sent a chill through Russia’s media landscape, where controls were already tight and have been tightened further since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

His trial resumes behind closed doors later on Monday.

Striking a defiant tone in personal correspondence seen by Reuters on Monday, Safronov said he harbored no illusions about the prospect of being imprisoned for his alleged offenses.

“I will fight until the end, there is no doubt about that,” Safronov wrote in a letter sent from Moscow’s Lefortovo prison and dated March 26.

“If it’s a prison term, then it’s a prison term. It absolutely doesn’t scare me,” said the letter, shown to Reuters on condition the addressee remained anonymous.

Safronov has said state investigators pointed to his acquaintance with a Czech journalist he met in Moscow in 2010 who later set up a website which Safronov said he contributed to using information entirely based on open sources.

Since sending troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, Moscow has introduced a law outlawing the use of certain terms to describe its military intervention in Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation.”

That prompted many independent media outlets to close or relocate.
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Ukrainian leader urges US to send more weapons
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Macron and Le Pen in runoff vote April 24
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Russian ally Serbia took the delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system in a veiled operation this weekend, amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the time of the war in Ukraine could threaten the fragile peace in the region.

Media and military experts said Sunday that six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed at Belgrade’s civilian airport early Saturday, reportedly carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military.

The Chinese cargo planes with military markings were pictured at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. Serbia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.

The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach.

“The Y-20s’ appearance raised eyebrows because they flew en masse as opposed to a series of single-aircraft flights,” wrote The Warzone online magazine. “The Y-20’s presence in Europe in any numbers is also still a fairly new development.”

Serbian military analyst Aleksandar Radic said that “the Chinese carried out their demonstration of force.”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic all but confirmed the delivery of the medium-range system that was agreed in 2019, saying on Saturday that he will present “the newest pride” of the Serbian military on Tuesday or Wednesday.

He had earlier complained that NATO countries, which represent most of Serbia’s neighbors, are refusing to allow the system’s delivery flights over their territories amid tensions over Russia’s aggression on Ukraine.

Although Serbia has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions that condemn the bloody Russian attacks in Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against its allies in Moscow or outright criticize the apparent atrocities committed by the Russian troops there.

Back in 2020, U.S. officials warned Belgrade against the purchase of HQ-22 anti-aircraft systems, whose export version is known as FK-3. They said that if Serbia really wants to join the European Union and other Western alliances, it must align its military equipment with Western standards.

The Chinese missile system has been widely compared to the American Patriot and the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems although it has a shorter range than more advanced S-300s. Serbia will be the first operator of the Chinese missiles in Europe.

Serbia was at war with its neighbors in the 1990s. The country, which is formally seeking EU membership, has already been boosting its armed forces with Russian and Chinese arms, including warplanes, battle tanks and other equipment.

In 2020, it took delivery of Chengdu Pterodactyl-1 drones, known in China as Wing Loong. The combat drones are able to strike targets with bombs and missiles and can be used for reconnaissance tasks.

There are fears in the West that the arming of Serbia by Russia and China could encourage the Balkan country toward another war, especially against its former province of Kosovo that proclaimed independence in 2008. Serbia, Russia and China don’t recognize Kosovo’s statehood, while the United States and most Western countries do.
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As the hospital train sped away from the frontline in war-torn Ukraine, electrician Evhen Perepelytsia was grateful he would soon see his children again after almost losing his life.

“We hope that the worst is over — that after what I’ve been through, it will be better,” the 30-year-old said, lying on a train carriage bed swaddled in a grey blanket.

He was among 48 wounded and elderly patients to be evacuated from embattled east Ukraine this weekend, pulling up in the western city of Lviv Sunday evening after a long trip overnight.

The evacuation was the first from the east since a Russian strike killed 52 people among thousands waiting for the train at the eastern railway station of Kramatorsk on Friday.

And it was the fourth to be organized by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Inside one of the carriages turned ward-on-wheels, Perepelytsya recounted how he lost his leg to shelling in his hometown of Hirske in the eastern region of Luhansk.

He was standing outside and had just discussed abandoning their home to join their children in the west of the country, he said.

“I took one step forward, and when I made the second, I fell,” he said. “It turned out that it hit very close to me, hit a monument, and a fragment from it tore off my leg.”

Sitting on the end of his bed, his wife, Yuliya, 29, said she had been terrified she would lose him.

“He was unconscious twice in the intensive care unit,” she said. “We couldn’t save his leg, but we saved his life.”

She said their three children were waiting in Lviv with their grandmother.

“We’re not going back,” she said.

The United Nations says at least 1,793 civilians have been killed and 2,439 wounded since Russia launched its invasion, but the actual tally is likely much higher.

More than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

The Ukrainian authorities have in recent days urged all residents in the east of the country to flee westwards to safety as they fear Moscow will unleash the full force of its military there after setbacks around the capital Kyiv.

As the blue carriages pulled into Lviv, medics carried those who were unable to walk on stretchers into waiting ambulances and helped the others on foot or in wheelchairs onto buses.

In one bus, 77-year-old Paraskevia sat patiently with a large white bandage on her eye, and a net over her head to keep it in place.

“My eye hurts,” said the elderly lady from the village of Novodruzhesk in Luhansk, who did not give her second name.

“But the doctors on the train were great,” she added, of the 13 staff members on board, most of them Ukrainian.

In front of her, a 67-year-old who gave his name as Ivan said he had to wait in a basement for two days after being shot in the street.

Neighbors in the town of Popasna, also in Luhansk, bandaged him up as best they could until the medics could arrive.

On the platform, MSF train hospital coordinator Jean-Clement Cabrol caught his breath.

The train had successfully ferried 48 people to safety, but still many more needed help, the doctor said.

Earlier in the war, a first train had traveled to Zaporizhzhia to pick up three families who were wounded while trying to flee the besieged port city of Mariupol.

After that, two operations whisked dozens of patients — mostly elderly people — out of Kramatorsk, leaving just days before the deadly Russian attack.

By the tracks on Sunday evening, the doctor said another train would soon depart to continue evacuations as long as it was possible.

“We are heading back tonight,” he said.
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