The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned of negative consequences for hunger worldwide following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine.

“The massive flooding is destroying newly planted grain and with it hope for 345 million hungry people around the world for whom grain from Ukraine is a lifesaver,” the head of the WFP’s Berlin office, Martin Frick, said on Wednesday.

Following the dam’s destruction in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry expects some 10,000 hectares of agricultural land on the northern bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region to be flooded, according to initial estimates.

On the southern bank, in the Russian-occupied region, many times these areas will be flooded, the ministry announced on its website Tuesday evening.

Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the dam’s destruction. Both sides speak of a “terrorist attack” and an unprecedented environmental disaster.

Mr Frick is not, however, expecting further food price inflation, noting that “world food prices are still at a 10-year high.”

He added, “We cannot afford any more suffering.”

(dpa/NAN)